Al Jazeera’s Gizbert recounts Merseyside start

Posted by Martin Stabe on 7 April 2006 at 17:46
Tags: ABC, Al Jazeera, Iraq, Journalism, Regionals

The Liverpool Daily Post has a lengthy interview with Richard Gizbert, the TV reporter who won an Employment Tribunal hearing his dismissal from American network ABC News and will now be presenting a media programme for Al Jazeera International.

Before returning to Canada and eventually becoming an experienced war correspondent, Gizbert lived on Merseyside. He notched his first foreign news story at 16 while on a work experience stint on the Birkenhead News:

“I used to go to the chippie near the office for lunch because I was too young to go to the pub with the others. It was run by a Greek Cypriot family and their daughter kinda caught my attention. She went away and when I asked when would she be back her Dad said that they didn’t know - because she’d gone back to Cyprus for a visit and got caught up in the conflict between the Greeks and the Turks there at the time.

“And that’s when I got my first real story which had the headline WIRRAL GIRL CAUGHT ON WAR-TORN ISLAND. It was a very good local story. I kept it and still have it along with the ribbon-cutting photo captions and stuff.”

Gizbert was in Liverpool recently for the National Union of Journalists conference last month. At the conference, the NUJ decided to support Gizbert’s defense fund for ABC’s expected appeal agains the Employmnet Tribunal ruling. As we reported at the time, the escalating costs of the case have left Gizbert in debt.

“I’m worse than skint. In fact skint’s looking pretty good to me right now,” Gizbert told the Daily Post.

The NUJ is backing Gizbert’s defence because of the precident his case could set. If Gizbert prevails, journalists would be safe from being forced to accept dangerous assignments.

Tags: ABC, Al Jazeera, Iraq, Journalism, Regionals