Al Jazeera International, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, headquartered in Doha, has appointed Felicity Barr as presenter and Lauren Taylor as correspondent for their London broadcast centre.
Felicity will be the female presenter of Al Jazeera International’s London based broadcast centre and will co-present the news with Stephen Cole, former senior presenter for BBC World. She joins the channel from ITN where she presented various flagship programmes including the ITV Evening News and the sport on the ITV News at Ten Thirty. Felicity brings to the job nearly fifteen years of presenting and reporting experience. Felicity joined ITV News in 2001 and for the past 3 years she presented three hours of rolling news on the ITV News Channel every day. She has dealt with major breaking news stories from across the globe including the Iraq war, last year’s Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Felicity is also an experienced “on location” presenter, covering stories such as the London terror attacks in July 2005 and the Athens Olympics under hugely challenging circumstances with great authority and insight. “I am thrilled to be joining Al Jazeera International at its inception and am really looking forward to being part of this very exciting project – to bring to the English speaking world a fresh perspective on world news and current affairs,” Felicity said.
Lauren Taylor meanwhile joins the channel as correspondent in the London broadcast centre alongside Alan Fisher, formerly Chief Correspondent at GMTV. Lauren was previously Economics Correspondent for ITV News. Prior to that she worked as a News Correspondent for ITV News. Recent assignments have included covering the UK 2005 election and reporting live on the night of the US 2004 Presidential Election from the Bush headquarters.
Speaking on the appointments from the channels headquarters in Doha, Director of News Steve Clark said, I have long admired both of these journalists and am delighted to finally have them on board. They will add a new dimension to our European news coverage.
As we gear up for launch in the Spring of this year well be revealing more details of our on-screen line-up and will be announcing further presenters for our other broadcast centres, strategically placed around the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London, and Washington D.C., continued Steve Clark.