During his studies, he worked as a presenter for
Südwestfunk and wrote for the
Frankfurter Rundschau and
Die Zeit. In 1983, he became an editor at ZDF and reported from Mexico,
Nicaragua, Spain, and
Poland. From 1988, he was the personal advisor to the then newly-elected ZDF editor-in-chief
Klaus Bresser. In 1991, Frey went to Washington, D.C. as a correspondent and deputy head of the ZDF studio there, where he reported on the
Gulf War. From 1992 to 1998, he headed the '''' and moderated the program together with
Maybrit Illner, , and . From 1998 to 2001, he was the head of ZDF's main foreign affairs department. During this time he presented the
auslandsjournal, numerous special programs, and the program
ZDF Royal. He developed the daily journal
heute – in Europa and authored the foreign reports
Wer rettet Russland? and
Der Fluch des Öls. (left) and former Ambassador
John Kornblum (center), 2008 From 2001 to 2010, Frey was head of the ZDF capital studio in Berlin and presented the programs
Berlin direkt,
ZDF-Sommerinterview, and
Berliner Runde. He analyzed current political developments for the news programs
heute and
heute-journal. In 2005, he hosted numerous special episodes on the death of
Pope John Paul II and the election of
Pope Benedict XVI from Rome. In 2008, he hosted the nine-hour program
Amerika hat gewählt zur Wahl von Barack Obama and commented on
Obama's visits to Germany. On 10 December 2009, he was elected by the ZDF board of directors to succeed Nikolaus Brender as the new ZDF editor-in-chief from 1 April 2010. His successor as head of the Berlin studio was Bettina Schausten. As editor-in-chief, he introduced the new series ZDFzoom and ZDFzeit, and was committed to the development of the digital channel ZDFinfo and the broadcaster's online strategy. He is still present on the screen as a commentator of
heute-journal. Since Peter Frey's election as editor-in-chief,
Shakuntala Banerjee, Sophie Burkhardt, Benjamin Daniel, Frederic Huwendiek, and Miriam Steimer have served as program speakers for him. Peter Frey is not a member of any political party. In journalistic circles, he is, like his predecessor Brender, close to the
Social Democratic Party. As an author, speaker and panelist, Peter Frey has commented on the topics of international relations, European integration, German domestic politics, German culture of remembrance and professional ethical questions in journalism and the development prospects of television. He has expressed his positions on questions of credibility in journalism in articles for
Die Zeit, the
Süddeutsche Zeitung, and the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. == Other engagement ==