an award-winning broadcast journalist, international media trainer and consultant, and writer
Dr Julia Paul is an award-winning broadcast journalist, an international media trainer and consultant, and a writer.
You can find out more about my journalism and writing here, and follow my blog.
You can also contact me for media consultancy or teaching work.
I make award-winning media content. My experience in producing material for online, audio and visual broadcasts, podcasts and digital social media content means I can adapt content to the platform you use.
I’ve been a journalist for more than 30 years, starting in local newspapers in Britain, before moving to join BBC radio, and then television. I’m currently producing content on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service.
I’ve reported from around the world, including for the United Nations English Language service, based at UN HQ in New York, but I have particular expertise in countries emerging from conflict and reporting on divided communities.
I have a long connection with Afghanistan and I spent more than 15 years as a journalist in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I was the assistant producer and reporter for the political programme Hearts and Minds. In 2009 I was named ‘Journalist of the Year’ by the political website Slugger O’Toole.
I have advised visiting broadcasters such as Al Jazeera English, on coverage of Northern Ireland, and work as a commentator for others like UTV.
To watch a selection of my broadcasting work:
I have extensive experience in training journalists, advising media organisations, and training staff in media awareness, specialising in coaching women in broadcast interviews.
My academic research focuses on where broadcasting and journalism fit into post-conflict societies. My PhD examined the role of the BBC Northern Ireland politics programme Hearts and Minds in communicating the region’s move from conflict to devolution and the operation of that devolution.
I have taught communication and journalism at universities on BA and MA courses in the UK, Ukraine and Malta.
I have also researched writing about conflict in Afghanistan through the Afghan Women Spread the Word project, which I set up in 2013. Working with the British Council I coached women from across Afghanistan to record women’s stories and use that material to write creative pieces.
The interviews and stories will be hosted by the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University which has also supported the project.
I have worked all over the world as a trainer and media consultant, specialising in working with reporters in conflict areas, with the BBC World Service Trust — now BBC Media Action. This included training the journalists who would set up Al Mirbad, the first independent radio station in Basra in Iraq, and working with others in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jordan, Yemen and Russia.
You can hear more about my varied career, in this interview with renowned Northern Ireland blogger Alan in Belfast:
Like many journalists I am trying to write a novel!
It’s called The Game and is set in Afghanistan. It examines the political interference in the country, through the stories of three characters – a western aid worker, a British security consultant and an Afghan translator.
Short stories of mine have been published in the literary journal The Open Ear.
You can also follow my current blog here on the website, reading about my recent work around the world or look back at An Englishwoman in New York, the blog I wrote during my time working at the United Nations English language radio.