Jim Laurie

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James Andrew “Jim” Laurie (born June 16, 1947 in Florida) is an American writer, journalist, and broadcaster who is known principally for his work in Asia.

Laurie graduated from the American University in Washington D.C. with a degree in History and a certificate in Asian Studies (1973). He started a freelance career in the early 1970’s writing for the Far Eastern Economic Review and other newspapers. [1]

In 1972, Laurie joined NBC News in Saigon to cover the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. In 1975, with cameraman Neil Davis, [2] he covered the final phase of the Communist take over of Vietnam on April 30th, remaining 26 days in the newly renamed Ho Chi Minh City. [3] He is interviewed in the 2005 CNN Insight programme The Fall of Saigon, 30 Years Later. [4] His work in Vietnam in 1975 for NBC News earned him the George Foster Peabody Award from the University of Georgia. [5]

In 1981, working for ABC News, Laurie established the first American television network bureau in China. Later, he reported from Beijing during the Tiananmen Square student protests and subsequent crackdown of May-June 1989. He is interviewed in the 2006 Antony Thomas film entitled The Tank Man [6]

Laurie reported for ABC News from 1978 to 1999.

In 1980, his reporting in Vietnamese occupied Cambodia resulted in a one hour ABC News Close Up documentary This Shattered Land. [7]

Other assignments for ABC News included coverage of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin in Russia from 1988 to 1991,[8] the war in Bosnia 1992-1993, the elections in South Africa in 1994, [9]the famine and US Marine operations in Somalia in 1995, and the continued conflict with Saddam Hussein when Laurie reported from Baghdad in the aftermath of the first Gulf War.

Returning to Asia in 1997, Laurie covered Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty and interviewed at length the Dalai Lama on prospects for the future in Tibet. [10]

In 1999, Laurie left active television news reporting and turned to television management for the News Corporation owned Asia network STAR Group Ltd.

Laurie has co-produced, written, and narrated a number of television documentaries and long form broadcasts. They include ABC News Close-up Japan: Myths Behind the Miracle, 1981, China: The Yellow River, 1988, [11] Cambodia: Boom Town, 1999 (an ABC News Nightline special), and Vietnam: Giaiphong 25 years later; (a one hour Focus Asia special on News Corporation’s STAR World Channel) 2000.

In September 2005, Laurie was appointed Director of the broadcast journalism department of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, the University of Hong Kong.[12] In addition, he heads Focus Asia Productions Ltd, a Hong Kong based consulting and production company. He provides news consulting services to international TV News organizations, [13]works closely with television channels in India, [14] and produces programming for California Public Broadcasting.

In addition to the Peabody Award cited above, Laurie is the recepient of an Overseas Press Club Award for his 1984 reporting in the Philippines,[15] two Emmy Awards, an Armstrong Award, and an Amnesty International Award for coverage of Asian issues.

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