Personal

Chance is a British national born in the year 1970. He was raised in the English Midlands and he did his graduate studies at the University of London. He did his Bachelor’s degree in Archaeology and Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is married and has a daughter Anna Chance who is seven years old.

Profession

Chance worked initially as a broadcast journalist at BBC World Service and later started working as freelance journalist reporting on stories from Bangkok, Sri Lanka, and London from 1996 to 2001. He later joined CNN in the year 2001. He has been the international correspondent of CNN based in London for nearly twelve years. He replaced Steve Harrigan, when he quit CNN to work for Fox News Channel and while he was on assignment in Northern Afghanistan.

Notable Assignments

He was one of the first to report on the capture of Kabul by Northern Alliance Forces and also reported extensively on the aftermath of Taliban rule in the country. His other major news coverage include the Russia- Georgia conflict of 2008, the militant attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, India in the year 2008, the London bombings in 2005, the tsunami of 2004, and the siege of Beslan school in 2004. He also reported on the hostage situation at Moscow theatre in 2002. He has also done in-depth reporting on the Iraq War and its aftermath, and the Israeli Palestine conflict.

Captivity

In August 2011, Matthew Chance was held as hostage along with a few other journalists by Libyan Leader Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli at the Rixos al Nasr hotel. He communicated through twitter all through his captivity and reported live, when he and the rest were rescued by the Red Cross International Committee.

Chance spent six years in Moscow bureau of CNN, before settling in London. He has also reported the 2005 Pakistan Earthquake, the Ossetia war in 2008, and was one of the first reporters based in Moscow to have interviewed Vladimir Putin, the Russian Premier. He has received many awards in his career including the Peabody award for 2006 Israel Hezbollah conflict and the Alfred duPont award for his coverage of 2004 tsunami in Asia.