The Billen Profile

Nima Elbagir: Winning access to the frontline

Nima Elbagir, reporting for Channel 4’s Sudan: Meet the Janjaweed in 2008 (Credit: Channel 4)

The stained linen suit, the self-draining tumbler of Scotch, the well-turned tale about cheating death on the road – my every preconception about war correspondents has just been shattered by meeting Nima Elbagir.

Although she shares all their best qualities, she is not as other foreign hacks. She doesn’t drink. She doesn’t brag. And when she flies into a war zone she packs her prayer mat.

Really? “Actually, I tend to use whatever I can find. My camping towel will generally do.”

Obituary: Ray Fitzwalter

Ray Fitzwalter

At Granada Television, the passionate Fitzwalter was part of a group of talented programme-makers who ensured that ITV was in the vanguard of broadcasting influential and popular current-affairs shows.

As editor of the trail-blazing ITV flagship, World in Action, Fitzwalter was a constant thorn in the side of corrupt businessmen and politicians. The peak-time show (initially shown on Monday nights) was launched in 1963.