Bio
Ben Said is a South African hournalist and television reporter best known as a senior correspondent for eNew Primetime on e.tv.
Said was awarded a three year National Diploma in Journalism at Technikon Natal in the early 1990's. Shortly afterwards he began work as freelance print journalist covering Mozambique's post-war multi-party elections in 1994.
In the following years he wrote on subjects as diverse as South African politics, higher education and sport for both local and international media.
In 1997 he began a career in radio, notably covering the urban bombing campaign in Cape Town by fundamentalist Muslim group PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs).
It began with a battle to eradicate local drug dealers and escalated into a terror campaign against western interests including the deadly bombing of Planet Hollywood in Cape Town.
Said then traveled to London where he worked as a freelance producer at Reuters Television for two years.
On returning to South Africa in 2000, Said joined e.tv where he conceptualised and brought to air a daily 30-minute international news show, the first of it's kind in South Africa. This included running a small team of producers who daily, wrote, edited and voiced their own packages.
Highlights included a special broadcast the day after the September 11th attacks on the US. Said also wrote, edited and voiced virtually the entire content of e.tv's September 11th coverage.
He decided to try his hand at field reporting from 2002 and continues to do so. Highlights include coverage of US President George W Bush's visit to South Africa, two local election campaigns, the Zimbabwe elections in 2005 and the south-east Asia tsunami.
His most challenging story has been the coverage of the rape trial and acquittal of South Africa's former Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.
In between, he has indulged his love of travel and has journeyed to every continent on earth, except Antarctica.
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