This year, Ashis Ray completes 40 years as a foreign correspondent. It makes him the longest serving Indian foreign correspondent. He has worked mainly for BBC and CNN, but has also worked for ITN, the Ananda Bazar Group and The Times of India. He now writes for The Tribune and heads RAY – a video news agency.
Winner of the National Press Award in India, honours in Britain and the United States, Ray coined the famous slogan on CNN: “Be accurate, fair and responsible, in addition to being first with the news!” He’s practised what he’s preached by breaking many major stories in different parts of the world. In 1992, he provided the first ever live shot on TV from Kabul while covering the civil war in Afghanistan. He has interviewed several heads of government in various parts of the planet. The first interview granted by Indian Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao after the demolition of the Babri mosque was to him on CNN.
In 1975, Ray became the world’s youngest Test match commentator. Today he is the world’s second senior-most cricket commentator, holding the distinction of having described ball-by-ball the 1983 Cricket World Cup final at Lord’s on BBC – which resulted in an historic Indian victory.
His two books and as many audio-visual documentaries on cricket are much acclaimed.
He is also the creator of website – www.bosefiles.info – dedicated to chronicling the truth about the last days and death of Subhas Chandra Bose after a plane crash.
In 1983, Ray became the youngest ever president of the Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA). He was re-elected to the post in 2009.
Background
Mr Ashis Ray was born in Vienna, Austria. His father was a doctor; his mother a homemaker.
He did not study broadcasting or journalism, so he had no formal training when he began his career. But at St Paul’s, Darjeeling – a British boarding school – he began listening to the BBC World Service.
This habit persisted, he says,
“Broadcasting seeped, as it were, into my system. Therefore, when I was summoned to do my first broadcast for the Youth Service of All India Radio at age 19 – that, too, live – it was as if I had done it all my life.
“In 1977, I was given an opportunity to broadcast on the very service that had unwittingly shaped me from a distance of 5,000 miles – the BBC World Service. So I came to London, presented a weekly programme called South Asia Survey and reported on cricket. In 1979, BBC included me in their panel of ball-by-ball commentators for that year’s Cricket World Cup – which made me the first Asian to be so recognised. These days, I generally appear on BBC’s Dateline.”
Biggest Challenge
“This is a difficult one,” contemplates Ashis. “One of the biggest challenges I encountered was in Afghanistan in 1992. There was no electricity, phone or telex connection available there. Our only link with the outside world was via a satellite phone. Using a benzene generator, we produced electricity. Thereby, we could operate a camera and a satellite uplink. Audio and video were delivered to Atlanta (CNN’s headquarters) via Moscow. From Atlanta it was beamed live globally. While I was the leader of the team – and enjoyed the glamour by being the person on-camera – it was a remarkable work by my technical team in collaboration with ITN that pulled off what I still believe was a miracle. Afghanistan was also challenging because of the sheer danger to one’s life that working there as a journalist posed.”
Forty years as a top journalist, I wanted to know about Mr Ray’s flagship memories for each decade or era. He has so many stories to tell.
“This is another difficult one. The assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi spring to mind, the reunification of Germany, India’s landmark economic reforms, the tearing down by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in India, the night the Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan was defeated in a no-confidence motion in the House of Commons (I was present in the press gallery to witness it), the end of apartheid in South Africa, the election of a coloured president, Barack Obama, in the United States, the Brexit vote, the list is endless.”
A true journalist never rests on his or her laurels; they’re constantly telling stories. RAYMEDIA LIMITED is Ashis’s new venture. What is it?
“RAYMEDIA LIMITED does a variety of things, including organising public conversations on international affairs. More about this at www.rayevents.co.uk. RAY-NEWS has done a soft launch. You’ll hear more about both this year.”
I ask Ashis how to get to the top and stay there, but he downplays his prowess.
“I don’t know the secret, otherwise I would have done it!”.
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Ashis Ray coined the famous CNN slogan: "Be accurate, fair and responsible, in addition to being first with the news!"
