Julian Pettifer

Julian Pettifer (born 21 July 1935 in Malmesbury, England) is a British television journalist. He is President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Vice President of the Wildlife Trust. He was voted Bafta 'Reporter of the Year' for his coverage of the war in Vietnam in 1968. In 1993 he presented a propaganda film for Rio Tinto Zinc. He now presents BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents.

Career

He started work in television during the early days of ITV, as one of the original Southern Television announcers in 1958, but later moved to the BBC as a globe-trotting reporter for programmes such as Tonight, 24 Hours and Panorama. He also wrote and presented a number of documentaries for both BBC and ITV, including Diamonds in the Sky, on the subject of international air travel; Automania, a history of the motor car, and Missionaries.

A growing interest in the environment led to him writing and presenting programmes about the environment and wildlife including Naturewatch for Central Television, Nature, and The Living Isles for the BBC. He is President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Vice President of the Wildlife Trust. He continued to report on current affairs, contributing reports for BBC Two's Assignment and Correspondent programmes, and a highly praised film for Channel 4 that re-examined the reporting of the Vietnam war. He presented BBC Radio 4's Asiafile and now presents their Crossing Continents.

Corporate propaganda

"Environmentalism is often likened to religion. To its followers it has its indisputable truths, its holy books and its saints and prophets. In this series of 3 programmes Julian Pettifer looks at three very different gurus of the Green movement and assesses their influence both on activists and on society as a whole.”

Would this be the same Julian Pettifer who presented a lengthy in-house corporate video for RTZ, saying how great RTZ were and how environmentally responsible their mines are?

References and links

links

• BBC Biography

• Images at the National Portrait Gallery
• Green Gurus - Downloadable documentary series on BBC Radio 4
• - www.GreenGuru.ie - The Real Irish GreenGuru website