User:Carelesswhisperz

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Zain Awan (born 26th August 1981) is an Indian born media professional of the Arab origin. He built his career in roles with The Times of India and various international TV channels including Sky News, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and Al Jazeera English.

As NHK’s South Asia correspondent, he worked on the channel’s extended coverage of Asian tsunami disaster and filed a collection of specials on the state of post-tsunami life in the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

Previously Zain was based in New Delhi and contributed stories for APTN and China Central TV from across India, including the Chinese premiere’s historic 2005 visit, Kashmiri cross-border bus and President Musharraf’s famous ‘Cricket Diplomacy’.

Zain has covered the India-Pakistan peace initiatives of 2003, which added to his extensive knowledge of Kashmiri affairs.

In 2002 Zain took a step back from news journalism, moving to Madrid to work with Oscar-award winning banner El Deseo on a docu-drama on relations between Islam and the West after the 9/11 attacks.

Education and early life

Zain completed Bachelors degree in English literature and Post Graduation in TV Journalism from New Delhi. He comes from an educated and influential family. Essentially born and raised into business family, Zain chose journalism as his career.

Racism Controversy

In 2007 controversy erupted within Al Jazeera English when Zain was subjected to alleged racism and religious discrimination, which eventually resulted in his gracefully leaving the organisation in what he called 'a Gandhian protest'. There was huge uproar within the channel when the reports surfaced of how he was racially and religiously abused.

The controversy aggravated after his silent but powerful exit from Al Jazeera English.

Zain now lives in New Delhi.