Rose began his career as a radio reporter at the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Montreal in 1979. He then took up the post of Radio News Editor at CBC Calgary. In 1984 he joined the Canadian division of the
UPI wire service, UPC, in Ottawa. When UPC closed in 1985, he joined Maclean's Magazine as a Senior Writer in the Parliamentary Bureau. By 1988 he was Bureau Chief for Maclean's in Montreal. In 1988–89 Rose was a visiting fellow at the Journalists in Europe Foundation in Paris. From there he went to Sydney, to establish the inaugural program in journalism studies at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean. Then he worked as an Assistant Editor on the Foreign Desk of
the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. In 1998, he joined the Reuters news agency in London as one of a team of Chief Editors, working there until 2003. In that year he was hired as Chief of Communications and Publications for Interpol in Lyon, France. In 2006 he returned to Sydney, and worked for
Amnesty International Australia, The Reserve Bank of Australia, and then the Australian Press Council in senior communications roles. He also ran a communications consultancy company, Global Communication Associates. Over his 40-year journalism and communications career, Rose has travelled to more than 70 countries. He has written in media genres including news reporting, political commentary and analysis, as well as feature and travel articles. Rose has taught journalism at the University of Western Sydney in Australia, as well as
the University of Sydney and
University of Technology Sydney. He has delivered guest lectures at Concordia University and the University of Hanoi. He has also trained working journalists in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, East Timor, Thailand, Sweden and Papua New Guinea. ==Writing career==