Comments:
Arnold Zeitlin has been for the past six years a visiting professor in guangzhou, teaching students journalism practice and training faculty in the new, english-language journalism program at guangdong university of foreign studies (www.gdufs.edu.cn). Her has served as consultant to news media organizations and other universities in china. He also is visiting professor at the journalism & media studies centre, hong kong university. zeitlin plans to return to consulting and teaching in china during the 2008-2009 academic year.
He is managing director and chief executive officer of a U.S.-based worldwide news media consulting firm, editorial research & reporting associates (erra), with much of its work in china. see its website, www.newerra.com.
In guangzhou, zeitlin has consulted and spoken to editorial staff at the guangzhou daily group, the nan fang group, the yangcheng evening news, the new express daily and radio guangdong as well as conducted workshops for journalism staff and students at jinan and zhongshan universities.
he has lectured and consulted at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Renmin University and Tsinghua University, Beijing; Shantou University, Shantou; Shanghai International Studies University and Fudan University, Shanghai.
He has spoken to staff and consulted with editors at China Daily; People's Daily; and Shanghai Daily.
Zeitlin has conducted news media workshops internationally for the u.s. state department and voice of america in pakistan and in bangladesh.
Zeitlin was director from 1998-2001 of the Asian Center, based in Hong Kong, of The Freedom Forum, an independent, self-supporting Arlington, Va.-based foundation devoted to promoting good journalism globally as well as the principles of the First Amendment to the u.s. constitution.
for the freedom forum, he conducted workshops, arranged conferences, seminars and other programs and spoke frequently in 17 countries from Fiji in the pacific to pakistan and nepal. you may refer to ms. chris wells (cwells@freedomforum.org) who was freedom forum's international director during that time.
He was a Knight International Press Fellow in 1998, conducting workshops for working journalists throughout Pakistan for six months.
From 1990-94, Zeitlin was vice president and general manager, Asia-Pacific division, United Press International, based in Hong Kong and responsible for the news report, business and human resources of the region.
From 1987-1990, Zeitlin was managing editor of the monthly newspaper and magazine supplement, The WorldPaper, based in Boston, MA, and published in four languages, including Chinese.
From 1955 to 1987, Zeitlin worked principally for The Associated Press and served as a correspondent and bureau chief in Lagos, Nigeria; Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where he opened the first AP bureau in that country; and the Philippines. He has served abroad in and reported also from Vietnam, where he was the pool reporter covering the u.s. withdrawal in 1975, Thailand, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Cuba and Argentina.
He was the AP's first resident correspondent in Pakistan from 1969-73. He was the first foreign news agency correspondent to establish a bureau in the Islamabad-Rawalpindi area.
Zeitlin covered the 1970 tidal bore in which 300,000 Bangladeshis died.
In an interview with zeitlin in Peshawar in February, 1971, Z.A. Bhutto first revealed he would not attend the Constituent Assembly meeting called in Dhaka, beginning the process of the break up of Pakistan.
Zeitlin covered the tense days in Dhaka during March 1971. He was one of three foreign correspondents left in the city after the Pakistan Army struck 25 March 71. His story on the carnage in Dhaka was the first to be sent around then world.
He covered the guerilla war that led to Bangladesh independence and lnterviewed Sheik Mukib when he was prime minister of Bangladesh. He covered the killing of Sheik Mujib in August 1975.
Zeitlin reported the Biafra civil war in Nigeria and the martial law regime of President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the Philippines.
Zeitlin was a Knight International Press Fellow in Pakistan in February-July 1998, conducting programs for journalists in Karachi, Quetta, Larkana, Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu and Lahore at such places at Kinnard College and Punjab and Karachi universities.
Zeitlin is the sponsor of scholarships in memory of his late wife, Vicky Shek Zeitlin, for mainland chinese students and journalists at the Journalism & Media Studies Centre, Hong Kong Universty, and for Asian students at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. He is also a founder of the Vicky Shek Zeitlin Memorial Library & Conference Centre, Karachi.
Zeitlin holds a master's degree from the Graduate School
of Journalism, Columbia University; and a b.a. in journalism the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University and an International Reporting Fellow at Columbia University.
He is the author of "To the Peace Corps, with Love," the first book by a Peace Corps volunteer. Zeitlin was a member of the first Peace Corps volunteer group sent into service (to ghana) in 1961.
previous to his Peace Corps service and in addition to his work for the associated press, Zeitlin was an award-winning columnist for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1958-61). Zeitlin is a graduate of the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; and the University of Pennsylvania.
Zeitlin divides his time between homes in Centreville VA and Guangzhou, China.
