Jim Dougal
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Dr Jim Dougal is a Northern Irish journalist. He is one of Ireland's longest serving broadcasters, having worked for RTÉ, UTV and BBC since 1969. A former civil servant, Jim's career as a journalist began at BBC Northern Ireland as a general reporter. He also worked at Ulster Television before taking up the post as Northern editor at RTE from 1974 to 1991. Dr Jim Dougal was awartded an honorary doctorate from Queens University, Belfast for services to the community in Northern Ireland.
Jim returned to BBC Northern Ireland in 1991 as the station's Political Editor, replacing Denis Murray upon his promotion to Ireland Correspondent for the corporation's network news bulletins. Jim's reports were featured on Inside Ulster and Newsline.
In February 1996, Jim was announced as the new co-presenter of BBC Northern Ireland's relaunched evening news programme, Newsline 6.30, along with reporting colleague Yvette Shapiro. This was the first time that BBC Northern Ireland's evening bulletin would be broadcast in direct competition to UTV Live, and after Newsline 6.30 initially failed to gain a ratings lead over its commercial opposition, and because of editorial differences Jim stood down from presenting duties after two months and returned to his political editor duties.
Jim Dougal left the BBC in 1997 to take up a job for the European Union, initially based in Belfast. He later became the head of the European Commission for the United Kingdom until 2004.
The year 2006 saw a return to Northern Irish broadcasting, as Jim presented and produced The Eternal Optimist, a documentary about the former Church of Ireland Primate of All Ireland Robin Eames. In early 2007, Jim formed a part of UTV's presenting team for the station's coverage of that year's Northern Ireland Assembly election in March. Jim who runs his own broadcast company Dougal Media also presented and produced with his son James a documentary entitled Paisley, from Protest to Power charting the life of Northern Ireland's First minister. This was broadcast on 8 May 2007 on UTV the day Dr Paisley took up office in Northern Ireland alongside deputy First Minister Mr Martin Mcguiness. Jim Dougal continues to be a broadcaster, writer and media affairs and public affairs consultant.
