|
|
|
|
|
Jim Laurie has been a journalist and broadcaster for more than thirty five years, twenty six of those years in Asia. He began his career in print: freelancing for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Washington Post, and the old Washington Star. He worked in radio, first as a student and then moved into television in the early 1970's. His first assignment in Asia landed him in Vietnam and Cambodia in the spring of 1970. His debut in television came in Spring 1972 on assignment in Quang Tri Vietnam for the old NBC News "Huntley-Brinkley" Report. In January 2005, Jim Laurie founded Focus Asia Productions Ltd., a diversified programming and television news consulting firm. See also: http://www.tvznews.tv/news%20archive/october/jimlaurie.htm In September 2005, he joined the University of Hong Kong as Director of the Broadcasting Programme to develop a full undergraduate and postgraduate radio and television curriculum. see: http://jmsc.hku.hk As a news consultant, he assembled a team of veteran television professionals to provide services to the Times of India Group, RTM in Malaysia and Ariana TV in Afghanistan. At the University of Hong Kong, he also established a professional production facility for educational purposes at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC). In January 2007, the JMSC in joint venture with the School of Business Asian Case Research Centre completed an eleven episode video series called FocusAsia: Business Leaders. Episodes of the series have been aired on California Public Television and on Channel News Asia in Singapore.
YEARS WITH STAR GROUP LTD. HONG KONG In June 1999, Jim Laurie moved from daily television news reporting to management when he was taken on by STAR Group Ltd., to build a news team and develop news and current affairs content across the channels of the Satellite Television Asia Region Ltd. He completed that task in January 2005. At STAR Laurie created STAR WORLD's first English language pan-Asia nightly news broadcast - STAR NEWS ASIA (nightly at 7pm HKT)
He also created and developed an award winning Sunday night current affairs programme -
FOCUS ASIA. FocusAsia won numerous awards, including a half dozen commendations from Amnesty International for human rights reporting, two Asian Television Awards in Singapore and three New York Festival Finalist Awards in the category of best magazine programme. In October 2001, FocusAsia made its American debut on KCSM TV in the San Francisco area. It went on to be picked up by some 30 Public Broadcast stations across the United States, including channels in Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In 2002-2003, Jim Laurie served as an advisor on the launch of a new 24-hour news channel in India. The Mumbai based STAR News began broadcasting on March 31, 2003. As a news consultant, Laurie initiated a number of intensive training programmes for early and mid-career broadcast journalists. In Mumbai and Delhi, he put together a programme for more than 200 Indian reporters, producers and technicians. In Hong Kong, Laurie staged several workshops for journalists at the Chinese language "Phoenix" channel. His training workshops have focused on news writing and reporting, production and presentation and most importantly "multi-tasking." Increasingly journalists are being called upon to report, write, shoot, and edit their own stories. Although largely in television management since 1999, Jim Laurie tries to keep his hand in reporting as well. In November 2000, Laurie accompanied the American President, Bill Clinton, on his ground breaking visit to Vietnam. (Click here for Vietnam reporting) In November 2001, driving through the Khyber Pass from Pakistan to Jalalabad, he reported from Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban defeat and the American led war effort. |
|
From October 1995 to May 1999, Jim Laurie was the ABC NEWS (American Broadcasting Company) Senior Correspondent for China and Southeast Asia. From a base in Hong Kong, he travelled widely. Throughout 1999, he covered China's political and economic initiatives, meeting both President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji. In March 1999, he wrote and presented a half-hour special report on Cambodia for ABC's Nightline program. In another special assignment in 1997, Laurie travelled to Tibet to report for ABC's World News Tonight on economic, social, religious & human rights conditions there. (Click here for China and Tibet) Also in 1997, Laurie covered the historic hand-over to China of the British colony of Hong Kong. Other reporting in the late 90's included the Asian economic crisis, developments in India and Pakistan, elections in South Korea, and the death of the former dictator Pol Pot in Cambodia. |
|
Jim Laurie was previously based in London for more than four years, from where he covered Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Travelling from London, he reported extensively on war in Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 through 1993. (Click here for Other Datelines - Bosnia) In 1994, he covered for six months the rise to power of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. (Click here for more Other Datelines) Other reporting during the period included the famine in Somalia in 1992, the 1993 U.S. air attacks on Baghdad, the parliamentary rebellion against Boris Yeltsin in Moscow in 1993, "Operation Uphold Democracy" in Haiti in 1994 and a look at Rwanda's displaced people in 1995. |
|
In the summer of 1981 Jim Laurie established the first American television bureau in Beijing. He served as bureau chief until he moved to Tokyo in 1984. Earlier he reported on U-S China relations as the two nations achieved full diplomatic relations in January 1979. In 1989, Laurie was a witness to the Chinese military crackdown on the democracy movement near Beijing's Tian An Men Square. |
|
From 1989 through 1991, Jim Laurie served as Moscow bureau chief, supervising a staff of 15 and reporting on the dramatic events of both the Gorbachev and the early Yeltsin years. He witnessed the last days of the Soviet Union. Earlier he travelled to Afghanistan to report on the Soviet withdrawal. As the old Soviet empire disintegrated, he reported from Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. |
|
From 1984 to 1987, Jim Laurie served as Chief Asia Correspondent based in Tokyo. He reported extensively on U-S Japan trade relations. In 1984, Laurie witnessed the killing of Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino. In 1986, he travelled again to Manila to report on the so called "Yellow Power" movement of Corizon Aquino which resulted in the departure of President Ferdinand Marcos and the restoration of Philippine democracy. |
|
In March 1980, Jim Laurie wrote and presented a one-hour ABCNEWS documentary, "Cambodia: This Shattered Land." The program examined the Khmer Rouge' destruction of Cambodia and the resulting famine. Near twenty-five years on, it still serves as a primer on the efforts in the 1990s to find lasting peace in Cambodia. In December 1981, Laurie wrote and presented an ABCNEWS "Close Up" documentary on Japan. Titled "Myths behind the Miracle," the one-hour program proved a cautionary tale, highlighting social problems affecting the rapidly growing economy. As Japanese growth stalled in the early 1990's, many of the observations in this programme seemed prophetic. In 1988, Laurie anchored an ABCNEWS documentary special on China. The one-hour program produced as a joint venture with China Central Television and Japan's NHK network portrayed life along China's "Yellow River." |
|
Through many assignments in Asia, Jim Laurie maintains a long association with Vietnam and Cambodia. He was a resident of Saigon from 1970 to 1973, covered the expansion of the war into Cambodia, and the North Vietnamese offensive across the "D-M-Z" in the spring of 1972. In 1975, he returned to Cambodia for NBC NEWS, and was evacuated by helicopter from Phnom Penh with the U-S Embassy. Less than two weeks later, Laurie embarked on his most dramatic assignment. In Saigon, he became one of the few U.S. journalists to witness the Communist takeover, thus ending the American backed war in Vietnam. |
|
In the 1970's, Jim Laurie covered a number of important stories around the world for NBC NEWS: including the 1975 declaration by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the "Emergency" in India, the start of the Civil War in Beirut, Lebanon, that same year and the growing opposition to President Park Chung Hee in South Korea which continued through the '70's. His Vietnam Coverage for NBC News produced a number of awards for journalism including the prestigious "Peabody Award" from the University of Georgia. |
|
Jim Laurie also in the 1970's was a writer for the Hong Kong based magazine FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW . As the REVIEW'S Washington contributor, he wrote both of Asian affairs and domestic American politics. His analysis pieces included assessments of U-S China relations in the years between Nixon's groundbreaking 1972 visit and the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1979. Laurie also covered the Nixon "Watergate" hearings and wrote of their impact on U-S foreign policy. |
|
Over the years Jim Laurie has been honoured with a number of awards for news and broadcasting, including a Peabody, an Overseas Press Club Award and three Emmy's. |
|
Jim Laurie is a graduate, with a BA in History and certificate in Asian Studies, of the American
University in Washington D.C. |
|
Jim Laurie is married and has one son. Whenever possible, they retreat to their farm in Oxford County, Maine, USA. They also maintain a home along the Saigon River in Vietnam. His wife Xuan Xanh, born in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, specializes in Vietnamese art and linen embroidery. |
