Diana Goodman

Who is Diana Goodman?

Diana Goodman is a New Zealand-born journalist who became the BBC's first female foreign correspondent.

Goodman was educated at Lytton High School, Gisborne, and Samuel Marsden Collegiate School for Girls, Wellington, before studying journalism at the Wellington Polytechnic School of Journalism.

After graduating, she worked for the Cook Islands Broadcasting and Newspaper Corporation, The Dominion, and the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. She moved to Britain in 1975 and started out in commercial radio before joining BBC Radio Manchester as a news producer in 1978.

Goodman became a network radio reporter in 1982. The following year she was sent to Australia and New Zealand to cover the Prince and Princess of Wales' first tour abroad. In 1984, she reported from Beirut on the Lebanese Civil War. The BBC attracted some criticism from listeners who objected to a woman being sent to cover a conflict.

In 1986, Goodman was posted to Bonn as the BBC's first-ever female foreign correspondent. As well as reporting on West Germany, she covered Kurt Waldheim's election as president of Austria. During the political upheavals in Eastern Europe in 1989, she came under fire while reporting on the overthrow of President Nicolae Ceauşescu.