 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Richard Gizbert is a Canadian broadcastjournalist. He is the creator and presenter of theListening Post onAl Jazeera English.
Gizbert was formerly employed byABC News but was sacked for refusing to travel toIraq to cover the2003 U.S. invasion. He later won a case forunfair dismissal against the network.
He is one of six children of transport economist Konrad Studnicki-Gizbert and the grandson ofWladyslaw Studnicki, a Polish politician and publicist with roots in the Polish nobility, theszlachta.[1]
His half-brother, Christopher, is an MIT-trained geologist currently living and working in Calgary, Alberta. Another half-brother, Daviken, is an associate professor of history, specializing in Latin America, at McGill University in Montreal.
Prior to joining ABC News, Gizbert worked as a correspondent-producer forCJOH-TV inOttawa, where he produced in-depth features forSunday Edition, the national current affairs programme. Prior to that, Gizbert was CJOH's parliamentary correspondent for five years, responsible for national political coverage. For his reporting of a hostage situation on Parliament Hill, Gizbert received the National Award for Breaking News Coverage.
From 1983 to 1985, Gizbert was a parliamentary correspondent and political editor forCFTO-TV inToronto, covering federal politics and co-presenting special events coverage.
Early articles include a review forOttawa-based radio stationCKCU onElvis Costello's performance at theHeatwave Festival in 1980.[2]
After being fired by ABC News in 2004, Gizbert fought and won awrongful dismissal case against the network,[3] in which an employment tribunal awarded him $100,000 in compensation. In his legal claim, Gizbert argued that his refusal to accept assignments in Iraq led to his firing. The tribunal agreed, ruling Gizbert's stand on assignments in Iraq was a "primary" reason for his dismissal.
Prior to the case, Gizbert had done extensive work in war zones for ABC.[3] Starting in 1993,[3] he covered the former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Rwanda and Somalia.[4] In 1999, he says, he told ABC that, as a parent of young children he felt he could no longer accept assignments in war zones. Gizbert told the tribunal that he offered to accept a domestic assignment in the US, if ABC wished him to do so. He said the network decided to keep him in London.
Five years later he was fired by ABC and replaced by a correspondent willing to report from war zones.
According to the UK'sGuardian newspaper, Gizbert's legal victory "could have far-reaching effects for war-zone journalism".[3]Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of theNational Union of Journalists in Britain, said the victory was "hugely important" for journalists and their families.
Martin Bell, formerBBC correspondent and former member of UK parliament, testified on Gizbert's behalf at the tribunal. After the verdict he said "Richard has been very brave, beyond war-zone valour, taking on ABC News. He's taken a stand for young journalists."[3]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Wikipedia, open source and the truth, 9:15,The Listening Post, Gizbert interviewsKatherine Maher[5] |
When his legal case against ABC News (U.S.) concluded, Gizbert joined Al Jazeera English. He pitched a media analysis show to the networkThe Listening Post and has hosted the weekly programme since the news channel's launch in 2006.
Aaron Barnhart, TV writer for theKansas City Star, wrote thatListening Post "might be the best media-critique program in English anywhere."[6]Stewart Purvis, former editor-in-chief and CEO of Britain'sITN, said "The Listening Post has delivered," and that its real value "is the breadth of its monitoring beyond the mainstream".[This quote needs a citation]
In 2008, Gizbert also created and hostedPlaylist, a show dedicated to "musical fusion, music from the global melting pot".[7] He later came up with the idea of 'an interview show without an interviewer, just two guests from different worlds, learning from each other'. Studio B Unscripted debuted on Al Jazeera English in 2019.
