Afshin Rattansi

Rattansi was born in Cambridge, England, in 1968, the son of immigrant parents, Prof. Pyarally Mohamedally Rattansi and Zarin Miraly Charania, who had married in London two years before. His father – late emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at University College London – was born in Kenya, one of the ten children of a tea planter, and the Rattansi family had originally come there from Chavand, a village in Kathiawar, India.Maniben Rattansi, David K. Some, [https://www.rattansieducationaltrust.or.ke/Images/Fulfilling%20a%20Dream%201.htm Fulfilling a dream] (Mohamedally and Maniben Rattansi Educational Trust, 2008)[https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8753&h=53829568&tid=&pid=&queryId=0c7ea0976821ee71ddf1af41ce91aaa4&usePUB=true&_phsrc=hfF1&_phstart=successSource “Pyarally M Rattansi”] in England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 4 September 2022

Rattansi began his career as a columnist for The Guardian before working on Britain's Channel 4 primetime documentary series executive produced by Tariq Ali and Darcus Howe, commissioned by Farukh Dhondy and Waldemar Januszczak.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

He has also worked for the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Channel 4, Al Jazeera, CNN International, Press TV and Bloomberg. He was the launch Business Editor of the Dubai Business Channel.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Covering_Iran_The_Role_of_Conventional_and_Non-conventional_Media.pdf|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/11694/1/Covering_Iran_-_The_Role_of_Conventional_and_Non-conventional_Media.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511112335/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/11694/1/Covering_Iran_-_The_Role_of_Conventional_and_Non-conventional_Media.pdf |archive-date=11 May 2021 |access-date=15 July 2020|website=SOAS}}{{cite web |last1=Drake |first1=Matt |title=BBC Question Time sparks OUTRAGE at guest panellist from 'Putin's mouthpiece' RT |url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/932537/BBC-Question-Time-Russia-RT-Afshin-Rattansi-Russia-Today-spy-poisoning-news-latest |website=Express.co.uk |access-date=19 March 2022 |language=en |date=16 March 2018}} He was also the first English-language producer at Qatar's Al Jazeera Television Network{{Cite book |last=Miles |first=Hugh |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56639838 |title=Al-Jazeera : how Arab TV news challenged the world |date=2005 |publisher=Abacus |isbn=0-349-11807-8 |location=London |oclc=56639838}}{{verify quote|date=October 2024}} He contributed twice to the scholarly journal, Critical Quarterly in 2003-4.{{cite journal | last=Rattansi | first=Afshin | title=Business television without qualities – an Arabian experiment | journal=Critical Quarterly | publisher=Wiley | volume=43 | issue=3 | year=2001 | issn=0011-1562 | doi=10.1111/1467-8705.00374 | pages=85–105}}{{cite journal | last=Rattansi | first=Afshin | title=The price was high | journal=Critical Quarterly | publisher=Wiley | volume=45 | issue=4 | date=14 November 2003 | issn=0011-1562 | doi=10.1046/j.0011-1562.2003.00542.x | pages=126–135}}

His work appeared in the 1994 Penguin Books anthology, Brought to Book{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31410037 |title=Brought to book |date=1994 |publisher=Penguin |first=Paul |last=Hammond|author2= Ian Breakwell |isbn=0-14-017080-4 |location=London |oclc=31410037}} and his quartet The Dream of the Decade was published in 2005.{{Cite book |last=Rattansi |first=Afshin |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/65171207 |title=The dream of the decade |date=2005 |publisher=BookSurge |isbn=1-4196-1686-2 |location=North Charleston, S.C. |oclc=65171207}} He wrote occasional articles for CounterPunch between 2009 and 2019.{{cite web |title=Afshin Rattansi, Author at CounterPunch.org |url=https://www.counterpunch.org/author/cr7stezu/ |website=CounterPunch.org |accessdate=21 August 2020}}

Rattansi was a guest panelist in a 2018 edition of the BBC's Question Time in which the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal was discussed.{{cite news |last1=Dysch |first1=Marcus |date=15 March 2018 |title=Appearance by RT presenter Afshin Rattansi on BBC's Question Time sparks outrage on social media |language=en |work=The Jewish Chronicle |url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/appearance-by-rt-presenter-afshin-rattansi-on-bbc-s-question-time-sparks-outrage-on-social-media-1.460837 |accessdate=21 August 2020}} Referring to Keir Starmer, Rattansi asked: "Why is it that neo-con, neo-liberal Labour Party members continue to try and use WMDs to push us into war?"{{cite web |last1=Drake |first1=Matt |date=16 March 2018 |title='Why does Labour use WMDs to take us to WAR?' BBCQT panelist SLAMS Keir Starmer |url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/932548/BBC-Question-Time-Labour-WMD-War-Russia-Afshin-Rattansi-Keir-Starmer-spy-poisoning |access-date=19 March 2022 |website=Express.co.uk |language=en}}{{unreliable inline|date=October 2024}}

In 2022, Afshin Rattansi founded the production company Ghaf TV Productions in the United Arab Emirates where quarter of a century before he was the founding Business Editor of the Dubai Business Channel.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

He now co-hosts a current affairs YouTube show Forecast News with Millie Pinch.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/@ForecastNewsTV | title=Forecast News | website=YouTube }}

• Afshin Rattansi, The Dream of the Decade: the London Novels (London: BookSurge, 2006)

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Category:1968 births

Category:Living people

Category:Al Jazeera people

Category:English people of Indian descent

Category:Press TV people

Category:RT (TV network) people

Category:English anti-war activists

Category:English expatriates in the United Arab Emirates