| Charles Sabine | |
|---|---|
Charles Sabine in Capetown, 2009 |
|
| Born | 20 April 1960 Rinteln, West Germany |
| Occupation | Television Journalist |
| Television | NBC News |
Charles Sabine (born 20 April 1960, British Army Battalion HQ, Rinteln, West Germany), is an Emmy-award winning TV journalist who worked for the US network, NBC News, for 26 years, before becoming a spokesman for patients and families suffering from degenerative brain disease.[1]
Contents |
Sabine was educated at Brentwood School, England, then obtained a first class honours degree in Media Studies from Westminster University, where he was tutored by BBC Radio Producer Charles Parker.[1]
He joined NBC in 1982 in London, and became a producer on the “Today” show in New York in 1987.
Sabine has written for British newspapers, including The Independent and Daily Mail, and has appeared regularly as a pundit on newspaper reviews and TV journalism. As a producer and correspondent for NBC, Sabine covered most of the news events of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia from 1982 to 2005. (Among them: Iraq, Israel, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Syria, Lebanon, Haiti, South Africa, Rwanda, Zaire, the Soviet Union, Iran, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Northern Ireland, Thailand, Pakistan and India.)[2]
In 2008, Sabine became an advocate for freedom of scientific research, and the victims of degenerative brain illnesses: in particular, Huntington's disease, from which his family suffers.
He has spoken on these subjects at the European and British parliaments, The World Congress on Freedom of Scientific Research, and the Royal Institution in London. Sabine contributed to the drafting of the late Senator Edward Kennedy's last act of legislation—the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act ("GINA"), designed to protect the rights of individuals with genetic presdispositions in the American workplace and in insurance.
Sabine was an active lobbyist in the successful implementation of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill of 2008.[3] The 50th Anniversary of Canada's Gairdner Foundation in 2009, attended by 22 Nobel Laureates, was marked by a debate between Sabine and Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner about the future of personalised genomics.[4] In 2009 he was the star guest at the Italian National Telethon, for which a film about him was produced by RAI cinema.[5]
A documentary feature is in production in the USA for which a film crew followed Sabine in both North America and Europe in 2009.[6]
Sabine is a spokesperson for Huntington's disease lay associations around the world, among them:
Sabine is a member of the Global Advisory Council of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.[10]
On June 30, 2010, more than a year of campaigning and fundraising in partnership with Sir Michael Rawlins culminated in the launch of an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Huntington’s disease in the UK Parliament. Chaired by Lord Walton of Detchant and supported by more than 40 MPs and Lords, the purpose of the Group is to raise the profile of Huntington’s disease and establish a better methodology for estimating its prevalence, and thus lead to allocation of more appropriate resources for care and research.[11][12][13]
Sabine is Consulting Publisher to the Huntington's disease research news web platform HDBuzz, founded by Dr Jeff Carroll and Dr Ed Wild.[14]
Sabine is married to his former producer, Nicole Bakshi, with whom he has a daughter, Sabrina (nicknamed 'Breezy'), born 2008, and a son, Roman, born 2010. They live in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England.
In 1989 Sabine won the News and Documentary Emmy Award for coverage of the Romanian Revolution.[1]