JMSC Director of Broadcasting Programme & Senior Teaching Consultant
Veteran broadcaster Jim Laurie joined the JMSC in September 2005 to build a radio and television teaching and production programme.
Laurie has been a journalist and broadcaster for more than 35 years. He began freelancing for the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Washington Post before moving to radio and then television in the early 1970s.
His first assignments in Asia landed him in Vietnam and Cambodia to cover the Indochina War. For 25 years, Laurie then roamed the world as a television correspondent for NBC News and ABC News.
In 1981 he opened the first American television news bureau in Beijing.
In 1999, Laurie moved from daily television news reporting to management, joining the News Corporation owned STAR TV network as it was developing news and current affairs content and launching 24 x 7 news channels in India.
In January 2005, he founded FocusAsia Productions Ltd, a consulting and production company.
As a consultant, he has advised on the launch of the Times Now news channel in Mumbai and conducted training sessions for the Aaj Tak Headlines Today channel in Delhi and China Central Television in Beijing.
In 2008 and 2009, Laurie advised on the management of the Asia operations of the Al Jazeera English Channel and served as Acting Bureau Chief in Kuala Lumpur.
Laurie is the winner of a number of awards for radio and television journalism including two Emmies, the Overseas Press Club Award, the Peabody Award for his 1975 Vietnam War coverage as well as Amnesty International Awards for human right reporting.
He has also produced and written a number of hour-long, television documentaries including specials on Cambodia, Japan, China, and Vietnam.
Among the TV series he produced in 2008 were Focus Asia Business Leaders seen on BBC World News and Earth Factor Asia on California Public Television.
