Journalist I dispatched back to cover unknown English region (8)
I believe the answer is:
tyneside
'english region' is the definition.
(region around the River Tyne in North East England)
'journalist i dispatched back to cover unknown' is the wordplay.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'dispatched' becomes 'sent' (I've seen this before).
'back' says the letters should be written backwards.
'to cover' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'unknown' becomes 'y' (algebra).
'ed'+'i'+'sent'='edisent'
'edisent' reversed gives 'tneside'.
'tneside' going around 'y' is 'TYNESIDE'.
(Other definitions for tyneside that I've seen before include "Geordie area" , "Northeastern area" , "NE English region" , "North-eastern region" , "This area of England" .)