Special GPJA Forum: Monday 10 March, 7.30pm at Trades Hall, 147 Great North Road Grey Lynn.
Guest Speaker Bilal Sarwary – “without doubt one of the best and bravest reporters in Afghanistan” according to New Zealand journalist Jon Stephenson.
Jon Stephenson will introduce Bilal at the forum and will pose a series of questions for Bilal to answer. Questions from attendees will also be included.
This is a great opportunity to hear about New Zealand participation in what has become our longest overseas deployment in the history of the country.
A brief bio of Bilal:
Bilal Sarwary started working for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and covered the US bombing campaign and invasion of Afghanistan.
After the fall of Kabul to the Northern Alliance and the US, Sarwary worked briefly for the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2002. Since 2002 he has worked for the BBC – initially as a producer and later as a reporter.
In 2006, Sarwary attended Middlebury College in the US, where he studied linkages between warfare, drugs and terrorism, comparing the FARC in Columbia with the Taliban in Afghanistan. After completing his university studies he returned to Afghanistan in 2010, where he works as a full time reporter for BBC News in Kabul.
Sarwary reports for BBC World TV, BBC World Service Radio, and for the BBC News website. He has also reported for many other international news outlets including Radio New Zealand, TV3 (New Zealand), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
New Zealand journalist Jon Stephenson has described Sarwary as “without doubt one of the best and bravest reporters in Afghanistan.”
