Field Correspondents

Field Correspondents

Hoda Abdel-Hamid Doha Correspondent
Hoda Abdel-Hamid
In addition to her work in Iraq, Hoda covered stories in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, India, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia and throughout the Middle East.
 
Previously she covered the Balkan war from Bosnia and Croatia and also filed stories from Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Gaza, Rwanda and from around Europe for France 3’s La Marche du Siecle programme.
 
Hoda has gained various prestigious awards across her career including one at the Festival du film de Monaco and three Emmy Awards.
 

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Mohammed Adow

Mohammed Adow (Africa)

has over 10 years of experience reporting from across Africa and joined Al Jazeera English from the BBC World Service where he held several different positions covering Africa for eight years.
 
Most recently, Mohammed was deputy editor at the BBC’s East Africa Bureau; previously as BBC’s Ethiopia correspondent, Mohammed reported extensively on the Somalia conflict, the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict, the Ethiopian elections and the post-election unrest, the activities of the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
 
During this time, Mohammed was also assigned to Darfur several times to cover the crisis in Western Sudan. 
 
Before that, Mohammed was the BBC’s Somali service senior producer based in London, East Africa correspondent, Northern Kenya reporter and a reporter for Kenya’s Nation newspapers.
 
Mohammed has also secured interviews with many of the major names in Africa including Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh and Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

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Hashem Ahelbarra

Hashem Ahelbarra (Doha) joined Al Jazeera from Abu Dhabi Television where he was a news presenter and senior reporter, after roles with the London based ANN and the Moroccan channel 2M.

 
Hashem has covered many of the biggest international news stories of recent years, including: the 2000 election of George Bush in the US and his re-election in 2004, the 2001 World Conference against Racism held in Durban South Africa, the attacks of September 11th in Washington and New York, the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq and the Asian Tsunami.
 
He has also secured exclusive interviews with many of the major names in world news including Yasser Arafat, Hamed Karzai, Charles Taylor, Vaclav Havel, General Richard Myers and General John Abi Zaid.

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Rula Amin

Rula Amin (Middle East) has special experience in reporting on the Middle East for international television news organisations CNN, MBC and Worldwide Television News (WTN).

 
In her most recent role as CNN’s roving Middle East reporter, her reporting assignments included Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, in addition to Israel and the West Bank.
 
She broke the news of the death of Syrian President Hafez Al Assad in Damascus and covered the second Intifada and the siege of President Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah.
 
Rula also covered the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon; the build-up to and the invasion of Iraq; the aftermath of the Iraq war from inside the country and from its border with Jordan.
 
Other assignments included covering the Hajj and Saudi Arabian politics and conducting exclusive interviews with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Bin Laden (one of Osama Bin Laden’s brothers), and the late Yasser Arafat.



 

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James Bays

James Bays (Doha)

 joined Al Jazeera after working as a correspondent for the UK’s ITN for over a decade.
 
James has travelled to more than 70 counties and has reported from conflict zones, including Iraq, the Congo, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Panama, the former Soviet Union, Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 2003, he was in Baghdad throughout the Iraq war, where his reports were carried by NBC and CNN as well as ITN’s Five News.
 
His interview with the Iraqi information minister the day before Baghdad fell formed the last ever official statement by Saddam’s regime.
 
James has also worked as foreign correspondent for Independent Radio News, where he reported on the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the release of the Beirut hostages and the 1991 Gulf War.
 

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Tony Birtley
A journalist for over 30 years, Tony Birtley (Asia) has worked with organ-isations ranging from news agencies to evening newspapers, radio and in both regional and national television.
 
Tony was TV-am’s Middle East corres-pondent for four years, filing reports and appearing on live two-ways for its news service and Frost on Sunday programme.
 
He also worked for five years as a correspondent for ABC America and has reported for ITN, Channel Four, CNN, the BBC and Sky News.
 
In 1994 Tony was awarded the RTS Reporter of the Year award for his stories from Bosnia and in 1993 he was badly wounded reporting from Srebrenica in Bosnia where he informed the world of what was happening to the besieged Muslims.
 
Other conflicts Tony has covered include: the Lebanese civil war, the first Palestinian Intifada; the war between Iran and Iraq; the Gulf War of 1990 and the conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Burma, Cambodia, Kosovo and Bosnia.

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Melissa Chan

Melissa Chan (Beijing) began her journalism experience at CNN’s main Asia hub in Hong Kong. There, she helped cover some of Hong Kong’s earliest demonstrations in the post-handover period, as well as the historic summit between South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung and North Korea’s Kim Jong Il. 

She has also spent time at CNN’s Havana bureau. In the United States, she worked at ABC News in New York City, eventually joining the team that produced the national evening newscast, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. She was also with ABC News in London at the time of the bombings.


In Asia, she has worked for organisations such as ABC News, ABC Radio, CBS News, the Voice of America, and Star News Asia.  
 

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Tony Cheng
Tony Cheng (Beijing) has specialist knowledge and experience of Asian affairs from his work with the BBC’s television, radio and online services.
 
In 2003 Tony became a general correspondent in Thailand for BBC News covering events across East Asia.
 
During that time he reported on the Asian tsunami, the insurgency in Southern Thailand and made in-depth features on China looking at the environmental impact of the country’s recent growth.
 
Four years ago Tony moved to Thailand to become the BBC’s regional correspondent for the East Asia Today programme.
 
He reported for the show and wrote for The Financial Times; Tony also worked in the region with the NGO ‘Internews’ on several projects to train Vietnamese, Khymer and Burmese journalists to report on HIV and Aids issues.
 
After graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Tony worked in advertising and publishing before joining the BBC’s Chinese-language service.
 
He then moved across into English-language news at the BBC World Service as a producer and later as a reporter.
 

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Alan Fisher


With more than 23 years in broadcast journalism, Alan Fisher (London) has reported for the UK’s GMTV from across the world.
 
Alan was their chief correspondent for six years, a role in which he covered the war in Bosnia, the end of the siege of Sarajevo, and the humanitarian crisis caused by the bloody Rwandan civil war.
 
Alan also spent ten weeks in Baghdad leading GMTV’s coverage of the last Gulf War. Most recently he covered major stories in the UK and abroad including a three-part series on poverty in Africa.


Previously as GMTV’s senior news correspondent, Alan filed reports on the Dunblane massacre; the death of Diana Princess of Wales from Paris; the 1998 World Cup and UK/US air strikes in Iraq.
 
He joined GMTV as the station’s first Ireland correspondent – setting up the bureau in Belfast and reporting major events including the Shankill bomb, the Loughinisland and Greysteel massacres and the early steps in the peace process including the first ceasefires.

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Mike Hanna

Mike Hanna (Doha) is a journalist with more than 25 years’ experience of reporting from the world’s hot spots; most recently Mike was CNN’s Jerusalem bureau chief, supervising and leading the network’s ongoing coverage of the dramatic events in the region.
 
He also worked as CNN’s senior
international correspondent based in Frankfurt and in 1993 opened CNN’s first Johannesburg bureau.
 
During this time he covered major stories throughout Africa, the Balkans, Russia, the Middle East and extensively in Northern Ireland.

Before joining CNN Mike worked for ITN’s Channel Four News for 10 years, during which time he received four British Academy awards and several Royal Television Society (RTS) Awards as part of the Channel Four News team.

 
He has also received a Cable ACE Award and a Bayeux War Corres-pondents award. He has been honoured by the New York Association of Black Journalists and in 1995 he won the prestigious Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting.
 
Mike began his career as a radio journalist, working extensively for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, the Australian Broadcasting Commission and IRN in the UK.

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David Hawkins


Emmy award winner David Hawkins (KL), with a career of more than 20 years in journalism, has international experience reporting for CBS from across the world.

David was correspondent for CBS based in Tel Aviv from 2000 to 2006, a role in which he reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was the first into Jenin during the Israeli siege there in 2002.

David also interviewed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and covered the funeral of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. In addition, David covered the war in Iraq and was the first western reporter to interview Iraqi insurgents fighting US troops.


Previously as CBS News’s Moscow correspondent (1999-2000), David reported for virtually all of its hard news broadcasts on Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, the Mir space station, Kremlin corruption scandals and the war in Chechnya, among many stories.
 
Before that, David was CBS News’ Moscow bureau chief and producer (1995-98), CNN’s special assignment producer based in Atlanta (1989-91), news assistant at The New York Times (1987-89) and a reporter for The Concord Journal in Massachusetts (1985-86).
 

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Jonah Hull
Jonah Hull (Moscow) has worked in the international television news industry for 10 years, with extensive experience covering breaking news, conflict and natural disasters around the world.
 
Most recently, Jonah was a London-based reporter for British satellite broadcaster Sky News. He covered stories including the G8 summit in Edinburgh, the London bombings in July 2005 and the 2003 Boxing Day earthquake in Bam, Iran.
 
In December 2005, he spent a month with US marines in Iraq’s western desert filming the hour-long documentary, Raider Nation for Sky News.
 
Previously with Associated Press Television News (APTN), Jonah travelled extensively, in Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories during the second Intifada, and in other conflict zones like Kosovo, Macedonia and Sierra Leone. He was also part of the agency’s team covering the second Gulf War in Iraq.
 
In 2001, Jonah was among the first western journalists to enter Afghanistan immediately prior to the American bombing campaign, crossing the border from Iran and meeting Taliban fighters there.
 
He was one of the first reporters to be ’embedded’ with US forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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Kamal Hyder

Kamal Hyder (Islamabad) has unique experience of reporting with CNN, AVT Khyber and for international print and broadcast media.

 
In his most recent role, Kamal anchored Pashto and English programming on AVT Khyber, covering all the tumultuous recent events in Afghan affairs.
 
He combined this broadcasting work with his daily contributions to the Frontier Post English newspaper from Peshawar.
 
Previously, as a CNN correspondent, Kamal reported from Afghanistan, covering events before and after the attacks on the World Trade Centre.
 
During this time Kamal cemented his reputation as an Afghan specialist with his fast and exclusive access to high-profile news stories, including the destruction of the Bamian Buddhas and the American-led invasion.
 
Kamal has regularly contributed to Time Magazine, the BBC, New York Times, the UK’s Sunday Times, MSNBC, ITN, Nippon TV, FNS Korea, Switzerland’s Facts magazine, Germany’s Stern magazine, Brazil’s TV GLOBO, the Toronto Star, and the UK’s Channel Four News.
 
Kamal is currently writing a book that draws on recent events and many of the personal experiences that have shaped his career, entitled The Last Days of the Taliban.
 

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Amr El-Kahky
Amr El-Kahky (Cairo) built his career in international news with Al Jazeera and the BBC’s Arabic services.
 
Amr has been covering all aspects of Egyptian life as Al Jazeera’s Cairo correspondent for the past two years; he has reported on major stories including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where he was embedded with the American troops in the south of the country.
 
Amr later returned to cover post-Saddam Iraq and covered the assassination of both Mohamad Baqer Al-Hakim and Aqila Al-Hashimi.
 
In 2002 he covered the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre from Washington and New York.
 
Before that, he covered Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. Amr has produced a range of special coverage and reports for Al Jazeera, including an edition of Under The Microscope entitled Afghanistan after the Taliban.
 
Previously, Amr was a broadcast journalist, reporter and producer with the BBC’s radio and television Arabic services to which he moved from the Egyptian News Publishing Group ‘Akhbar El-Youm’.
 

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Zeina Khodr

Zeina Khodr (Beirut) has been working in national and international news for over 15 years with major organisations including Al Jazeera, MBC, Emirates Dubai Television, BBC World Service and CNN.

Based in Doha with Al Jazeera’s Arabic Channel, Zeina worked for the network’s English-language website and as a field producer for Nekta Sekhana (Hot Spots), the regular one-hour documentary programme.

 
Zeina has extensive experience of reporting on major stories across the region – a career highlight was her coverage of the 16 day war involving Israel and Lebanon in 1996 and the occupation of southern Lebanon.
 

With CNN’s World Report Zeina won the 1998 Best Feature Award for her story on a traditional wedding in Baalbeck and in 1999 she was nominated for Best Political Story for her report on Israel’s annexation of the village of Arnoun.

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Laurence Lee

Laurence Lee (Europe) spent 10 years working at the BBC followed by eight years at Sky News.

He has reported extensively from the Middle East and Eastern Europe, central Asia and Russia, where he won awards for his coverage of the 2004 presidential elections.
Laurence joined Al Jazeera English in January as Delhi correspondent, helping launch the channel’s coverage from the world’s largest democracy before moving to the UK.

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Kalay Maistry

Kalay Maistry (Southern Africa) has over 15 years of experience in journalism from roles with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and with South Africa’s eTV, Radio 702, and Capital Radio.

 
As senior political reporter with the SABC, Kalay covered major African stories such as the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial, Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections 2005, parliamentary elections – Botswana 2004, political reaction to South Africa’s winning bid to stage the 2010 World Cup, South Africa’s 2004 general election, the official visit of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and of IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato and President Thabo Mbeki’s 2003 state visit to Malaysia.
 
For eTV, South Africa’s first independent television station, Kalay reported on the Zimbabwean presidential election 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development and on local reaction to the attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2003, and to the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.


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Nazanine Moshiri
Nazanine Moshiri (London) joined Al Jazeera English from ITV News where she was a presenter and reporter.
 
Nazanine has covered some of the biggest news stories in recent history, including the London bombings, the arrest of the July 21st bombers and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes.

She also produced a series of in-depth reports from inside Iran which were broadcast on ITV News and CNN.

 
As a presenter she was the face of ITV’s Morning News and was a regular presenter of ITV’s London Today. Before joining ITV News, Nazanine was a reporter at BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, where she became the first broadcaster to interview Ian Huntley, her interview was used as evidence at his Old Bailey trial.

 

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Haru Mutasa

Haru Mutasa (Nairobi) has worked with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), CNN, Television New Zealand (TVNZ), Associated Press Television News (APTN) and the Star Sports Network.

As a reporter based in Harare, Zimbabwe, Haru produced stories on Zimbabwe for CNN’s Inside Africa, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and APTN.
 
She worked across the country to give international viewers first-hand accounts of the latest developments on the ground.
 
As a floor manager for SABC Africa during the March 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections Haru managed and co-ordinated all live studio broadcasts that aired on the elections from Zimbabwe.
 
As an election producer for the SABC during South Africa’s April 2004 presidential elections she analysed election statistics and translated them into stories to keep viewers fully informed as the results unfolded.

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Yvonne Ndege

Yvonne Ndege (Africa) first discovered journalism as a work experience student at the BBC when she was just 14 years old.  From then, she knew it was all she wanted to do.

Her broadcasting career began as a researcher on the BBC’s flagship investigative show Panorama where she worked on specials such as the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. She then became a senior producer on BBC’s Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman.

In 2003, Yvonne moved to on-air reporting where she worked for BBC Breakfast, BBC World and BBC Radio 4.  Yvonne joined Al Jazeera English in 2007.

 

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Lucia Newman

Lucia Newman (Buenos Aires) 

has 25 years of experience in television and journalism, which encompasses roles with the BBC, ARD, NBC, ABC, 7 Network, Sydney Morning Herald, Radio 2GB and CNN. An expert covering Latin America, before coming to Al Jazeera International, Lucia was most recently CNN’s Havana bureau chief and correspondent.
 

Prior to her Cuban posting, she was CNN’s senior correspondent in Latin America, and bureau chief in Mexico from 1993-1997, Chile from 1989-1993, Nicaragua from 1985-1989 and Panama in 1987.

 

She has reported on the Contra war in Nicaragua, South America’s drug involvement and unrest in Panama under former dictator Manuel Noriega.

 

While based in Cuba, Lucia covered the 1998 Papal visit and the 1998 bomb attacks on Havana hotels, in addition to conducting several exclusive interviews with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

 
A recipient of many awards in journalism, in 2001 Lucia picked up the prestigious Edward R. Morrow Award for ‘sustained coverage of Elian Gonzalez’, the child at the centre of a heated custody and immigration battle in 2000 involving the Cuban and US governments.
 

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Dan Nolan

Dan Nolan (Sydney) joined Al Jazeera as Australia correspondent from Channel 10 where he was a news correspondent based in Sydney, having also reported for the channel from Brisbane and Perth.
 
Dan’s recent reporting highlights include covering the London terrorist bombings from the English capital in July 2005, travelling to Copenhagen in May 2004 to cover the royal wedding of Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Australian commoner Mary Donaldson and filing stories from Athens in the lead-up to the Olympics in 2004.
 
Dan has also built experience covering news and sport, domestic and international political affairs as well as human interest stories from across Australia.

Since joining Al Jazeera English, Dan has covered the Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006 that claimed 5000 lives, the coup in Fiji, and travelled extensively across the Pacific to countries like New Caledonia and to the tiny nation of Tuvalu to do a story on climate change.

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Nour Odeh

Al Jazeera English’s Nour Odeh (Gaza), has been covering all the events in the Palestinian territories for more than 6 years. Most recently, Nour edited and presented the English news bulletin for the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation.

 
Previously as chief editor at Ramattan News Agency in Gaza, Nour’s responsibilities included editing news footage of daily and breaking news in the Palestinian territories for distribution to many international news organizations including CNN, RAI channels, EBU, LBC, Dubai TV, etc. In addition, she produced  a number of feature stories for various clients and produced and edited written news bulletins to accompany each news transmission.
 
Before that, Nour who is fluent in English, Arabic and Spanish, freelanced for several news organisations including RFI-Spanish, Brazil’s Radio National, and Colombia’s Radio Caracol. For these organisations, she covered major historical events including the passing of President Yasser Arafat, the daily events of the Intifada, and the assassination of Palestinian leaders.
 
Also, Nour was director of communications at the Palestine Media Center in Ramallah and has written a number of op-ed pieces analysing the situation in Palestine which were published in a number of international newspapers. 
 

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Marga Ortigas

Marga Ortigas (Manila) 

 has had roles as an international news field producer, editor and reporter with CNN International and at ABS-CBN 2 News and GMA7 News in the Philippines.
 
As a producer and occasional reporter with CNN International in London and Baghdad, Marga covered major stories including the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath; the killing in Gaza of Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin; the Afghanistan peace talks in Germany; UK general elections and the ousting of former Filipino president Joseph Estrada.
 
As a supervising producer with ABS-CBN 2 News in the Philippines she co-developed and launched the Asian network’s innovative weekend primetime newscast.
 
Prior to this role she was an anchor, reporter and producer for GMA7 News’s English-language primetime newscast.
 
With GMA7, Marga covered stories including the devastating Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption in 1991; the departure of the US military from its bases in the Philippines; the first post-Marcos presidential elections and the Papal visit.
 

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Barnaby Phillips

Barnaby Phillips (Europe)

 has 15 years experience in television and radio journalism with the BBC, during which he also contributed to The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Economist.
 
Barnaby’s most recent role as the BBC’s Southern Africa cwas based in Johannesburg, South Africa; he reported from across the region and also worked in the Middle East, West Africa and Asia.
 
His major stories in these regions included the Aids epidemic, humanitarian crises in Darfur, war in Liberia, the 2002 Southern African food crises, war in Iraq and the South Asian tsunami.
 
Barnaby reported regularly for BBC flagship programmes including Today on Radio 4, Newsnight on BBC2, the Ten O’Clock News on BBC1, as well as BBC World television and World Service radio.
 
Previously Barnaby was the BBC’s Nigeria correspondent between 1998 and 2001 and was based in Lagos.
 
Responsible for radio and television coverage of Africa’s most populous country and its neighbours, he reported on the end of Nigeria’s military rule, religious and ethnic conflicts, as well as the war in Sierra Leone and upheavals in the Ivory Coast.
 

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Rob Reynolds

Rob Reynolds (Washington, DC)

has over 25 years of experience in international television journalism from his work with CNN, NBC and CNBC.
 
As CNBC’s Washington correspondent, Rob reported from the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and overseas.
 
He covered the 2004 presidential election, US primary campaigns; party conventions and presidential debates.
 
In Autumn 2002, Rob produced and reported a five-part series on the potential impact of war in Iraq on location in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
 
Previously Rob was Moscow correspondent for NBC News during the turbulent Yeltsin years and secured an exclusive American network interview with the new president prior to the 1998 Helsinki summit meeting with Bill Clinton.
 
As a CNN correspondent based in London, he reported from Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait in the run-up to the first Gulf War and during its aftermath.
 
Rob’s reports from Somalia during the US and UN-led peacekeeping mission were part of CNN’s Emmy Award-winning coverage of the crisis.
 
Rob has also been the recipient of an International Citation, Robert F Kennedy Memorial Journalism Award, for his ‘Famine in Africa’ piece for CNN in 1993.

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Alireza Ronaghi

Alireza Ronaghi (Tehran) chose an unusual route into journalism – he left school determined to be a doctor, but while studying medicine took up freelance journalism to earn some spare cash.

He qualified as a medical doctor in 1994, but realised news was his passion – so returned to college, this time to study journalism.

In 1999 he joined Japanese TV network NHK, and worked in their Tehran bureau for six years. In 2005 he moved to Reuters, and Alireza joined Al Jazeera English in February 2007.
 

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Jacky Rowland

Jacky Rowland (Jerusalem)

is an internationally recognised television correspondent, with experience of covering conflicts in the Balkans and the Islamic world.


 
She joins Al Jazeera from the BBC, where she held a number of high-profile foreign postings. She is probably best-known for her coverage of the former Yugoslavia.
 
In October 2000, she defied an expulsion order by the Serbian authorities, went into hiding, and emerged in time to cover the overthrow of the former president, Slobodan Milosevic.
 
Her reporting earned her a Royal Television Society Award in 2001. Jacky joined the BBC as a trainee in 1989.
 
In the subsequent 16 years, her career as a foreign correspondent took her to North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Russia, Afghanistan and the United States.

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Mohamed Vall Salem

Mohamed Vall Salem (Doha) was a reporter for Al Jazeera’s Arabic network before transferring to the new English channel in 2006.

He has covered major news events all over the world – from the Tsunami in Sri Lanka to a general election in India and the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. He has produced two documentaries on the relation between oil resources and political conflicts in Sudan (the civil war in the south and Darfur).

Before joining Al Jazeera English he worked as political and cultural news editor with Al-Alam newspaper in Morocco. He holds a Post Graduate Degree in English literature from Mohamed V University of Rabat, Morocco.


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Kristen Saloomey

Kristen Saloomey (New York) 

has 15 years of news reporting from across the United States with NBC.
 
Career highlights include her stories on the election of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and the trial of the cell known as “the Lackawanna Six”.
 
Kristen is a Lebanese American who is experienced in print as well as broadcast media, in addition to her work for NBC she has written news for MTV, the youth-oriented American music television network.
 
Kristen has a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was awarded the CNN fellowship, which involved writing, producing and reporting for the network.
 

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Mariana Sanchez

Mariana Sanchez (Caracas)

is a distinguished war correspondent. She has travelled the world covering major world events such as the war in Kosovo, the conflicts in East Timor and Macedonia, the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the ‘war on terrorism’ from both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 
Before joining Al Jazeera, Mariana built her career with international news organisations including CNN Espanol, Panamericana Television, ATV, The Wall Street Journal Americas, UNIVISION and Agence France Presse.
 
Mariana has also done work for The Los Angeles Times and reported for Radio Monitor on the 2004 Afghanistan elections.
 
She also contributed to Radio France International, Mexican Radio Monitor, Peru’s Caretas magazine, Mexico’s Diario Monitor newspaper, amongst others.
 
In 1992, she received a prestigious Emmy award for her special series on children and guns in the streets of New York.
 

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Mark Seddon

Mark Seddon (London)

has an wide and varied range of experience from his work as an editor, journalist, broadcaster, political adviser and commentator.
 
In his most recent role as editor of the internationally-renowned weekly magazine Tribune, Mark was responsible for editing, commissioning and leader writing.
 
He has also worked as a commentator and diarist on the London Evening Standard and as a contributor to the Evening Standard, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and Private Eye.
 
Between 1997 and 2000 Mark was elected to the UK Labour Party’s ruling National Executive Committee, and was re-elected in 2001.

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Step Vaessen


Step Vaessen (Jakarta) has been reporting on Asia for more than a decade. Step joined Al Jazeera English from Netherlands national television news NOS-Television whom she was with for 11 years and held several different positions covering Asia, most recently as Southeast Asia’s bureau chief in Jakarta during which she won an academy award in 2005 for reports on the tsunami.
 
Previously at NOS-Television, Step was Southeast Asia’s bureau chief in Singapore and before that as Indonesia’s bureau chief. During this time, Step extensively reported on the conflict in Ambon, East Timor, Papua and Atjeh and filed several reports from Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Singapore and Australia.
 
In addition, Step has experience in print and radio journalism. She has been a correspondent for Radio Netherlands and a correspondent for several of Netherlands newspapers including Limburgs Dagblad, Het Parool, GPD, VNU and the Elsevier weekly.
 
Step has also made several films including a film about Indonesia’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the tsunami, two for Amnesty International about Atjeh, one for the World Museum in Rotterdam on children at the garbage belt and a special programme for NOS about victims of the Japanese camps.
 
Owen Fay (Doha) is based in Al Jazeera’s Doha headquarters. Before joining the company, Owen worked out of Washington, DC where he spent three years as US correspondent for Channel News Asia, South African Broadcasting and Radio New Zealand.
Owen was one of the first journalists reporting live from the scene of the 9/11 attacks in New York, has covered the war in Iraq from Baghdad, the rise of Vladimir Putin from Moscow, and the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George Bush from across the United States. He has also reported extensively across Europe and Russia.