Simpson gets a makeover

Frontline club member and BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson is in Zimbabwe filing live reports for the BBC News at Ten. No mean feat for one of Britain’s most recognizable reporters in one of the world’s least BBC-friendly spots,

Back in London a make-up artist fitted me out with a beard, to make me look like an Afrikaans farmer. But it had a habit of coming loose in the heat and, if we were caught, it seemed unwise to wear a disguise. So I’ve just worn a baseball cap to cover my untidy white hair. I look pretty awful, but not as bad as I looked in the beard. link via Press Gazette

Even so, he’s still been recognised three times thus far into his trip. There’s a snippet of a report on YouTube. The BBC was originally chucked out of Zimbabwe when Rageh Omaar was there in 2002,

The BBC was thrown out after Zimbabwe raised concerns with the wording of a report by Rageh Omaar, its former Africa Correspondent, about Mugabe’s speech at the opening of the country’s parliament. Professor Moyo, the then Information Minister now an independent MP, said Omaar had incorrectly paraphrased Mugabe’s address. link