In the early 1990s, Rhodes University JMS graduate Anand Naidoo became a well-known face on South African TV, as a presenter on M-Net, and a familiar voice on South African radio, as news editor for Radio 702. His career in journalism actually started in the print media, with a role as a newspaper journalist on the long-defunct Rand Daily Mail. It took a stint in Belgium to kickstart his broadcast career, where he worked as a field producer for Belgian television as well as a producer and anchor for the Belgian Radio World Service. In the mid-1990s, Anand again became one of the Rhodes University JMS alumni flying the flag high overseas, with his relocation to Atlanta, USA, to take up the roles of anchor, correspondent and editor on CNN.
For ten years he anchored CNN’s flagship in-depth news analysis shows, including Insight and Q & A. His anchoring duties were interspersed with several foreign reporting assignments, including from South Africa, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and Anand was a member of the team awarded an Alfred I duPont/Columbia University award for the CNN coverage of the Asian Tsunami in 2004. A year later, he was part of the CNN team covering the Hurricane Katrina disaster, which devastated New Orleans. This work resulted in a Peabody award for those CNN staff involved in the coverage.
Anand’s next career move took him to Washington DC, to join Al Jazeera as news achor and reporter. For five years he was the face of Inside Story, a daily news analysis programme which was broadcast to an international audience, and for which Anand researched and wrote his own scripts. In 2012 he moved to CGTN America (China Global Television Network) where he anchors a daily talk/interview show called The Heat, providing insightful live streaming news and podcasts on global political and economic issues.
In April 2015, Anand was awarded the Bronze Medal for Best News Anchor by the New York Festivals International TV and Film Awards for a report on the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. In 2018 he was again awarded the Bronze Medal at the NY Festivals for an interview with John Nixon, the CIA agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein shortly after the former Iraqi leader’s capture by US forces. He is active on Twitter, sharing stories which give different perspectives on current world events, and his cover picture on the site is of Durban in South Africa, a reminder of his roots and childhood.