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Afshin Rattansi

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Afshin Rattansi
Rattansi in 2008
Born1968 (age 55–56)
Cambridge, England
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Broadcaster, journalist
Years active1988[citation needed]–present
Employer(s)The Guardian, Channel 4, Dubai Business Channel, Today (BBC Radio 4), Al Jazeera Arabic, Press TV, RT
Notable workThe Dream of the Decade: The London Novels
TelevisionRattansi & Ridley
Double Standards
Going Underground
RelativesShihab Rattansi (brother)
Websiteafshinrattansi.com

Afshin Rattansi (born 1968) is a British broadcaster, journalist and author[1] who presents Going Underground broadcast around the world except in the UK and EU, on the RT network, formerly known as Russia Today.

Early life

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Rattansi was born in Cambridge, England, in 1968, the son of immigrant parents, Prof. Pyarally Mohamedally Rattansi and Zarin Miraly Charania, who had married in London two years before. His father – late emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at University College London – was born in Kenya, one of the ten children of a tea planter, and the Rattansi family had originally come there from Chavand, a village in Kathiawar, India.[2][3] He has a younger brother, Shihab.[citation needed]

Career

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Rattansi began his career as a columnist for The Guardian[4] before working on Britain's Channel 4 primetime documentary series executive produced by Tariq Ali and Darcus Howe, commissioned by Farukh Dhondy and Waldemar Januszczak.[citation needed]

He has also worked for the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Channel 4, Al Jazeera, CNN International, Press TV and Bloomberg. He was the launch Business Editor of the Dubai Business Channel.[5][4] He was also the first English-language producer at Qatar's Al Jazeera Television Network[6][verify] He contributed twice to the scholarly journal, Critical Quarterly in 2003-4.[7][8]

His work appeared in the 1994 Penguin Books anthology, Brought to Book[9] and his quartet The Dream of the Decade was published in 2005.[10] He wrote occasional articles for CounterPunch between 2009 and 2019.[11]

Rattansi was a guest panelist in a 2018 edition of the BBC's Question Time in which the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal was discussed.[12] Referring to Keir Starmer, Rattansi asked: "Why is it that neo-con, neo-liberal Labour Party members continue to try and use WMDs to push us into war?"[13][unreliable source?]

In 2022, Afshin Rattansi founded the production company Ghaf TV Productions in the United Arab Emirates where quarter of a century before he was the founding Business Editor of the Dubai Business Channel.[citation needed]

He now co-hosts a current affairs YouTube show Forecast News with Millie Pinch.[14]

Filmography

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Television

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Today programme (BBC Radio 4)[5] 2002–2003
Press TV News 2007–2008[citation needed]
Rattansi & Ridley [with Yvonne Ridley 2008–2010[citation needed]
Alternate Reality 2011[citation needed]
Double Standards[citation needed] 2011–2013[citation needed]
Going Underground[1] 2013–

Documentaries

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Year Documentary
2012 Eritrea: A Nation In Isolation[15]

Books

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  • Afshin Rattansi, The Dream of the Decade: the London Novels (London: BookSurge, 2006)

References

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  1. ^ "Afshin Rattansi". Russia Today. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  2. ^ Maniben Rattansi, David K. Some, Fulfilling a dream (Mohamedally and Maniben Rattansi Educational Trust, 2008)
  3. ^ “Pyarally M Rattansi” in England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 4 September 2022
  4. ^ a b Drake, Matt (16 March 2018). "BBC Question Time sparks OUTRAGE at guest panellist from 'Putin's mouthpiece' RT". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Covering_Iran_The_Role_of_Conventional_and_Non-conventional_Media.pdf" (PDF). SOAS. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  6. ^ Miles, Hugh (2005). Al-Jazeera : how Arab TV news challenged the world. London: Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11807-8. OCLC 56639838.
  7. ^ Rattansi, Afshin (2001). "Business television without qualities – an Arabian experiment". Critical Quarterly. 43 (3). Wiley: 85–105. doi:10.1111/1467-8705.00374. ISSN 0011-1562.
  8. ^ Rattansi, Afshin (14 November 2003). "The price was high". Critical Quarterly. 45 (4). Wiley: 126–135. doi:10.1046/j.0011-1562.2003.00542.x. ISSN 0011-1562.
  9. ^ Hammond, Paul; Ian Breakwell (1994). Brought to book. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-017080-4. OCLC 31410037.
  10. ^ Rattansi, Afshin (2005). The dream of the decade. North Charleston, S.C.: BookSurge. ISBN 1-4196-1686-2. OCLC 65171207.
  11. ^ "Afshin Rattansi, Author at CounterPunch.org". CounterPunch.org. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  12. ^ Dysch, Marcus (15 March 2018). "Appearance by RT presenter Afshin Rattansi on BBC's Question Time sparks outrage on social media". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  13. ^ Drake, Matt (16 March 2018). "'Why does Labour use WMDs to take us to WAR?' BBCQT panelist SLAMS Keir Starmer". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  14. ^ "Forecast News". YouTube.
  15. ^ Eritrea: A Nation in Isolation on YouTube [dead link]
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