Afshin profile picture

Afshin

Writer and Broadcaster

About Me

My novel is out..The Dream of the Decade..for sale at Amazon.com..but my real blog is here.

My site is here!
SITE UPDATES: WBAI NY/KWRE MO AUDIO INTERVIEWS. FOX VIDEO COMING SOON.


Articles Audio Blog Contact Information Links Novels Press Release Video RSS feed Environmental and Geopolitical Risk Analyses Show Reels Cuttings (Broadcast) Cuttings (Ariel) INFORMATION, VIDEOS AND AUDIO AT: http://www.zen13743.zen.co.uk/ OR afshinrattansi.com2002 SONY WINNER OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISMAfshin Rattansi has for more than a decade and a half worked in flagship broadcast and print media around the world. In the UK, he has worked at The Guardian, the New Statesman, for every regional and national outlet of the BBC and a host of award-winning Channel 4 production companies. In 1999, he helped to launch the developing world's first global financial news and current affairs channel (see articles).He has reported on events across Africa and Latin America as well as the Middle East and Europe for fifteen years, covering the fall of the Berlin Wall, the resignation of Margaret Thatcher and working on the first UK primetime documentary to analyse human rights abuses by the then US and British-backed regime of Saddam Hussein.Before working for the BBC's Business and Economics Units, he analysed geopolitical financial and environmental risk for Lloyd's of London after world markets crashed. Portfolio allocation was of the order of £1 bn.Returning from the Middle East in 2002, he went on to produce for the BBC's top-rated radio show, the Today programme, on Radio 4. The programme was at the centre of the furore over claims that the Iraqi government possessed weapons of mass destruction. He left the programme amidst the events that led to the widely ridiculed Hutton Inquiry into the death of government scientist and Today programme source, David Kelly.He was one of the first english-language employees of Al Jazeera and worked at the Arab satellite station's flagship programme, 'Top Secret' which uncovered the Al Qaida plot to attack Washington and New York in 2001.He has since worked for the UK's top-rated breakfast television programme GMTV as well as CNN International.Afshin Rattansi has written six novels that have been represented by A. P. Watt and Curtis Brown Literary Agencies. Some of his work appeared in the Penguin Books' anthology of short fiction, 'Brought To Book'He is also a Fellow of the Asian Guild.Coverage has included the major news stories of the past decade and a half including apartheid S. Africa under reporting restrictions, the fall of the Berlin Wall, BCCI, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the collapse of Barings, the UN Millennium Conference in New York, UK-supported Saddam, the Thatcher resignation, WTO-Seattle, Al-Aqsa Intifada, Monsanto, US-Mujahideen support in Afghanistan, the Ethiopia-Eritrea war, The Colombia drugs ‘war’, El Salvador, OPEC under Hugo Chavez, Rwandan genocide, Kashmir and the Line of Control, the election of Vicente Fox in Mexico, the election of Sukarnoputri in Indonesia, the South-East Asian crash and the Bush campaign, the 2003 invasion of Iraq..2004 Writer/Copy Editor, CNN International, London Bureau (Freelance) Producer, GMTV (Freelance) 2003 Producer, Top Secret, Al Jazeera Satellite Television Channel - LONDON 2002-3 The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4 ‘The flagship Today programme alone is without equal. It is widely regarded as the most influential programme in the media’-The Guardian 1999-02 Business Editor, The Business Channel Startup and launch editor of the developing world’s first global business television channel, broadcasting from the heart of the Middle East 1998 Producer, BBC Economics Unit 1995-7 Producer, BBC Daily Programmes- BBC Television Centre and Los Angeles World Business Report/Business Breakfast/Breakfast News on BBC1 and BBC World 1992-4 Chief Risk Analyst, Octavian Underwriting, Lloyd’s of London Involved in allocation of £1 billion in funds, employing state-of-the-art computer technology after the Lloyd’s debacle in the analysis of geopolitical and environmental risk. 1991 Producer, TV-am (inc. production during the Thatcher resignation) Journalist, Daily Journal based in Caracas, Venezuela and Havana, Cuba. 1990 Director/Producer, Rear Window, Channel 4 Weekly prime-time foreign political documentary series. 1989 Director/Producer/Researcher, Signals, Channel 4, Weekly, prime-time arts documentary series. Assignments involved covering the fall of the Berlin Wall with Tim Sebastian. Press Corps, United Nations, Geneva - Sanctions Committee on South Africa 1987-9 Reporter/Director, Bandung File, Channel 4, Award-winning weekly prime-time international current affairs series.Programmes analysing political situations in China, Palestine, Cambodia, Chile, South Africa, Afghanistan and stories in the UK. Broke stories on BCCI , Iraq etc. 1983-5 Deputy Editor, Arts and Computer Database, British Telecom’s Prestel

My Interests

Movies:

Some of them.. A King in New York - Charlie Chaplin; All the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Bunuel and G.W.Pabst; All the films of Ken Loach but particularly "Ladybird, Ladybird"; Clueless - Amy Heckerling; Dance with a Stranger - Mike Newell; Frances - Graeme Clifford; Giant - George Stevens; Grand Hotel - Edmung Goulding; Harvey - Henry Koster; London - Patrick Keiller (and all his others); Novecento- Bernardo Bertolucci (and most of his others); On The Waterfront - Elia Kazan; Orphee - Jean Cocteau; Paradise Now - Hany Abu-Assad; Processional - John Howard Lawson; Rebel Without A Cause - Nicholas Ray; Reds - Warren Beatty; Room at the Top - Jack Clayton; Salt of the Earth - Herbert Biberman; Salvador - Oliver Stone; Shaheed - Ramesh Saigal; Short Cuts - Robert Altman; Society - Brian Yuzna; Splendor in the Grass - Elia Kazan; Stranger than Paradise - Jim Jarmusch; Tender Comrade - Edward Dmytryk ; The Battle of Algiers - Gilles Pontecorvo; The Front - Woody Allen; The Last Supper - Stacy Title; The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - Tony Richardson; The Misfits - John Huston; The Way We Were - Sydney Pollack; Three Days of the Condor - Sydney Pollack; Tokyo Story - Nagisa Oshima; Twelve Angry Men - ; Viva Zapata - Elia Kazan; We Who Are Young - Harold S. Bucquet; West Side Story - Sidney Lumet;

My Blog

From today's Guardian (UK)

Look eastAfter long delays and a rumoured editorial split with its Arabic parent, English-language news channel al-Jazeera will go on air this week. Owen Gibson and Afshin Rattansi report Monday Novem...
Posted by Afshin on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:10:00 PST

Recent blogs!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 --> p: PMCA3E84U0ML798DOat1161699002 a: PlogMyCustomersAgent //--> Dance of the Seven Veils 8:16 AM, October 24, 2006  What to make of the veil debate?   First...
Posted by Afshin on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:22:00 PST

Recent Blog entries on Amazon!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Changing policy 7:06 AM PDT, August 15, 2006 A fascinating evening with the veteran Labour MP, Tony Benn, who famously renounced his peerage and brought forward legislatio...
Posted by Afshin on Thu, 24 Aug 2006 03:58:00 PST

The Blogs so far,,

Friday, June 30, 2006 Collective Punishment 12:21 PM PDT, June 30, 2006 The UK Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, has given a blistering show of what journalistic interviewing is at its best. In...
Posted by Afshin on Tue, 04 Jul 2006 03:53:00 PST