Al Jazeera International, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, headquartered in Doha, announced that Divya Gopalan and Hamish MacDonald have joined the channels team of on-screen talent.
Divya and Hamish will be the channels weekend news anchors for Al Jazeera Internationals Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre, one of four regional broadcast centres strategically placed around the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC. They join the award winning weekday news anchors Veronica Pedrosa and Teymoor Nabili, formerly of CNN International and CNBC Asia respectively.
Divya brings the channel over 10 years experience in international journalism including roles with BBC News, CNN and American networks NBC and CNBC. Hamish meanwhile joins Al Jazeera International from the UKs Channel 4 News where he built a career as a news producer and reporter covering a range of international stories.
Nigel Parsons, Managing Director of Al Jazeera International said, I am pleased to confirm our weekend presenters who bring a dynamic approach to news reporting in keeping with the channels aim of bringing a fresh perspective on world news while maintaining the highest journalistic standards.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to be part of Al Jazeera International. I’m looking forward to the challenge of helping shape what I believe will be this century’s defining news station,” said Divya Gopalan.
“I am hugely excited to be joining Al Jazeera International. This truly is a dream job and I am honoured to be part of an on-air team which includes the likes of Sir David Frost, Veronica Pedrosa and Riz Khan,” said Hamish MacDonald.
“Working on the Asia pacific patch for Al Jazeera International is an enormous opportunity for me and I am looking forward to the challenge of producing distinctive journalism which is meaningful to people living both inside and outside of this region, he continued.
At the BBC Divya worked on daily news and current affairs programmes such as Hard Talk. Her portfolio included major news stories such as the Iraq war, the Asian Tsunami, the Bali and London bombings. She also covered the 1997 Hong Kong handover for NBC and at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival interviewed Palm Dor winner for best actress Maggie Cheung and best director nominee Wong Kar Wai. Divya was the first ethnic Indian newsreader on Hong Kong television.
Starting her on-air career as a sports reporter, Divya interviewed some of the biggest names in the sporting world like tennis stars Steffi Graf, the Williams sisters, Anna Kournikova, F1 star Jensen Button, and International soccer players including Gianfranco Zola and Andy Cole.
Divya has a truly global background, she is of Indian origin and was born in Hong Kong. She was also brought up in the Philippines, educated in North America and spent five years living and working in London and is fluent in four languages.
Hamish has covered major stories at Channel 4 including the Asian Tsunami and the London bombings. He reported live for Channel 4 and ITV news and reported as an eyewitness for Australian Networks 9, 7 and ABC.
He began his TV career with WIN television in Canberra as a politics reporter and presenter. From there he moved to the UK and freelanced for a short period, before joining the Channel 4 news team as a producer.
Hamish trained in journalism at Charles University in Australia and began his career as a Talk Radio presenter and newsreader on Radio 2BS Gold. He is the first Australian news anchor to join the Al Jazeera International news line-up of on-screen talent.