| Lisa Aziz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 June 1962 |
| Education | University of London |
| Occupation | Journalist, Presenter |
| Ethnicity | Bengali-English |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Notable credit(s) | TV-am, Sky News, ITV News |
Lisa Aziz (born 19 June 1962) is a British news presenter. She is best known as the co-presenter of the Bristol based ITV South West nightly weekday news programme The West Country Tonight. Before this she worked for TV-am and Sky News, and was one of the first Asian presenters to be seen on television. In 2004 she was the recipient of an EMMA (Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy) award for Best Television News Journalist.
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Aziz is of mixed descent, born to a Bangladeshi father and an English mother.[1]
She studied at the University of London, gaining a BA (Hons) in History of Art and Religious Studies, after which she joined Radio City, in Liverpool, as a presenter. In 1983, she moved to Bristol where she worked as both a television reporter and presenter for the BBC and HTV West.[2]
In 1988 she joined TV-am as a reporter before presenting news bulletins for the station the following year. She was one of the first half Asian presenters to be seen on mainstream television,[3] and the first Muslim news presenter.[2] She joined Sky News in 1992, but continued to present bulletins for TV-am,[2] and later went on to become one of the main news presenters at Sky News. In 2004, she won the EMMA Best Television News Journalist Award.[4][5] She returned to the West Country in 2005,[6] and has since been one of the main presenters of the ITV West main news programme The West Tonight. From 16 February 2009, she became co-presenter of the pan-regional news programme The West Country Tonight, which replaced The West Tonight (ITV West) and Westcountry Live (ITV Westcountry) alongside Steve Scott.
In June 2009 Aziz was reported to have gone on leave from ITV South West after suffering tendinitis.[7] However, on 10 July it was reported that she had been suspended from her job because of irregularities with her expenses.[2] However, ITV would only say that she had been off work for personal reasons.[2]
Aziz disappeared from her presenting role in mid June 2009, and was replaced by two younger female presenters, Ellie Barker (ITV West) and Claire Manning (ITV Westcountry).[2] On 10 July 2009 Mail Online reported that Aziz, who by then had not been seen hosting nightly news programme The West Country Tonight for the past month, had been suspended for irregularities with her expenses, one of the irregular items apparently being a £5.75 bill for dry cleaning a child's top.[2] The Mail report appeared after an article in Private Eye published on 7 July.[8] According to the Daily Mirror the claims amounted to £200.[9] It was also reported that Aziz planned to sue ITV for religious, race and sex discrimination after an alleged prolonged bullying and harassment campaign aimed at forcing her out of the organisation.[2] It was later reported that she had initiated legal proceedings against her employers in response to the allegations, and had lodged complaints about four people at ITV West.[10]
Aziz also said that she hadn't been suspended, but had been signed off work for three months due to stress caused by the expenses allegations. She also received treatment at the Priory Clinic for work related stress and depression.[10]
The Bristol Evening Post reported on Wednesday 24 February 2010 that Lisa Aziz had officially left ITV West and had dropped all allegations against the broadcaster.[11]