Shamim Chowdhury

{{Short description|English television and print journalist}} {{Use British English|date=November 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Shamim Chowdhury | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = 220px | alt = | caption = | native_name = শামীম চৌধুরী | native_name_lang = bn | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = London, England | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Queen Mary University<br />Birkbeck College<br />City University London | occupation = Journalist | years_active = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = | credits = | style = | net_worth = | height = | television = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani (great uncle) | callsign = | awards = Winner of British-Bangladeshi Outstanding Achievement Award 2014 | module = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Shamim Ara Chowdhury''' ({{langx|bn|শামীম আরা চৌধুরী}}) is an English television and print journalist.

==Early life and education== Chowdhury was born into a Bengali Muslim Chowdhury family in England, United Kingdom. Her parents migrated from Sylhet,<ref name="bbwhoswho13">{{cite book |last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/whos-who-2013.pdf|date=October 2013|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=75|access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to the United Kingdom in the early 1970s.<ref name="huffingtonpost2">{{cite news |last=Chowdhury|first=Shamim|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/shamim-chowdhury/reconnecting-with-the-pas_b_3706682.html|title=Reconnecting With the Past – A British-Bangladeshi Returns to the Land of her Ancestors Shamim Chowdhury|work=HuffPost|date=5 August 2013|access-date=1 December 2013}}</ref> Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani, the commander-in-chief of the Bengali liberation forces, is her great-uncle and grew up in the same household as her paternal grandfather, Azadur Rahman Chowdhury, who himself was the postmaster general of the Sylhet district.<ref name="bbwhoswho14">{{cite book |last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/old_Publication.pdf|date=November 2014|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=11|access-date=1 December 2014}}</ref>

Chowdhury has a BSc from Queen Mary University, a MSc from Birkbeck College, and a post-graduate diploma in newspaper journalism from City University London.<ref name="bbwhoswho09">{{cite book |last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/whoswho_09.pdf|date=October 2009|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=55|access-date=18 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="bbwhoswho10">{{cite book|last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/who%27%20who%20website%202010.pdf|date=October 2010|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=49|access-date=18 September 2011|archive-date=29 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929082121/http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/who%27%20who%20website%202010.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Career== Chowdhury started out in print journalism<ref name="asianmediaawards"/> and has written for a number of British national newspapers, including ''The Daily Express'', ''The Daily Mail'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', and ''The Independent'', where she wrote a number of op-eds on a range of socio-political issues. She also used to have her own column in the English-language Bangladeshi newspaper, ''Bangla Mirror''.<ref name="bbwhoswho09"/><ref name="bbwhoswho10"/>

In 2007, Chowdhury started working for Al Jazeera English as a deputy news editor. Her later roles included news editor, reporter and producer. She was based mainly in London, but also worked occasionally in the main news centre in Doha, Qatar.<ref name="asianmediaawards">{{cite web|url=http://www.asianmediaawards.com/judges3.html|title=Judges – Asian Media Awards|publisher=asianmediaawards|date=30 September 2013|access-date=1 December 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011733/http://www.asianmediaawards.com/judges3.html|archive-date=3 December 2013|df=dmy-all}}</ref> She was involved in a wide range of stories for the channel, including the 2013 Ukraine crisis, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building complex in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi elections. She was regarded as the channel's Bangladesh expert.<ref name="bbwhoswho13"/>

Since 2015, she has been working as a foreign correspondent for the Turkish television news channel, TRT World.<ref>{{Citation |title=TRT World's Asia Reporter on witnessing scale of the Rohingya refugee crisis |date=30 September 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOurQduh7o |publisher=TRT World |access-date=4 October 2017}}</ref> During this time she has reported from inside Syria, Iraq, South Korea, Jerusalem, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and many European countries. She also produced and reported an exclusive series of reports on Bangladesh's burgeoning economy, including a half-hour documentary of the subject.

Her interviews include former Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yıldırım; Gowher Rizvi, the International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh; and Kamal Hossain, a founding leader of Bangladesh.

She has also written extensively for ''The Huffington Post'' on a wide range of socio-political issues.<ref name="asianmediaawards"/>

Her previous television experience includes work at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News.<ref name="bbwhoswho09"/><ref name="bbwhoswho10"/>

Chowdhury has taken part in current affairs and politics debates at The House of Lords and on live television discussion programmes.<ref name="bbwhoswho13"/>

Since October 2013, Chowdhury has been a judging panel member at the Asian Media Awards.<ref name="prolificnorth">{{cite news|last=Hartley|first=Sarah|url=http://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2013/10/asian-media-awards-shortlist-unveiled-ahead-of-manchester-ceremony/|title=Asian Media Awards shortlist unveiled ahead of Manchester ceremony|publisher=Prolific North|date=2 October 2013|access-date=1 December 2013|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203014858/http://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2013/10/asian-media-awards-shortlist-unveiled-ahead-of-manchester-ceremony/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Personal life== Chowdhury is a Muslim<ref name="huffingtonpost1">{{cite news |last=Chowdhury|first=Shamim|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/shamim-chowdhury/why-as-a-muslim-i-celebrate-christmas_b_2344084.html|title=Why as a Muslim I Celebrate Christmas|work=HuffPost|date=24 December 2012|access-date=1 December 2013}}</ref> and lives in West London.<ref name="huffingtonpost2"/> She has visited more than 65 countries including parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. On one occasion, she worked with a leading charity to help build a community centre in a remote part of Cambodia.<ref name="bbwhoswho13"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Twitter|shamimjourno|Shamim Chowdhury}} * [https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamim-chowdhury-348143134/ Shamim Chowdhury] on LinkedIn * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110321093703/http://english.aljazeera.net/category/person/shamim-chowdhury Shamim Chowdhury] on ''Al Jazeera English'' * [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/shamim-chowdhury/ Shamim Chowdhury] on ''The Huffington Post'' * [http://www.myactionaid.org.uk/schowdhury Shamim Chowdhury] on My Action Aid

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Shamim}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Category:Alumni of City, University of London Category:Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Category:English Muslims Category:English people of Bangladeshi descent Category:English women journalists Category:English television journalists Category:English newspaper editors Category:English columnists Category:English women columnists Category:English women newspaper editors Category:Muslim writers Category:British Asian writers Category:21st-century English women writers Category:Al Jazeera people Category:Daily Mail journalists Category:Daily Express people Category:The Daily Telegraph people Category:The Independent people Category:Bangla Mirror people Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists Category:Sky News newsreaders and journalists Category:ITN newsreaders and journalists Category:Journalists from London Category:British women television journalists Category:English women radio presenters Category:21st-century English writers