Midcoast Forum on Foreign Relations

William Stebbins

September 2008

Topic: The opinion, and the Other Opinion

William Stebbins, Aljazeera English Bureau Chief for the Americas, began his career as a cameraman, which took him to the former Yugoslavia. From a base in Zagreb, he spent three years covering the wars both in Croatia and in Bosnia. In 1995 he was invited to join the staff of Worldwide Television News as a journalist at their London headquarters and from there he traveled regularly on assignment to the conflict in the Balkans. In 1997 he was named Worldwide Television News Cairo Bureau Chief and moved to Egypt. As well as covering the terrorist attacks in Luxor and Cairo, Will spent a lot of time in the Gulf for the various build ups against Saddam Hussein during the Clinton administration. This was also a busy period in West Africa, where Will witnessed the fall of long time president of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. While covering the Congolese civil war, Will contracted malaria.

One of his most exciting assignments began in 1998, when Fidel Castro invited the AP to return to Cuba after a 30 year absence. Stebbins was invited by the AP to join their operation in Cuba to set up the broadcast news gathering team. In 1999, he moved to Havana, and spent two years building the bureau. Stebbins was one of only two permanently based North American journalists covering Cuba at the time. He was there throughout the Elian Gonzalez affair and supplied the first television pictures of the boy’s return to Cuba.

In 2001 the AP asked Stebbins to take up a new challenge: to move to Miami as a Regional Executive to develop the AP’s broadcast news gathering operation throughout Latin America. He spent two years traveling the region, raising the AP’s profile, building alliances with local broadcasters, and directing the expansion of resources.

Always on the move, in 2003 Stebbins relocated once again to Washington DC to take charge of AP’s Latin America desk and direct all coverage of the region. It was in Washington DC in 2005 that he was approached by Al Jazeera and recruited to establish the Washington Broadcast Center and the news gathering operation for the Americas. As the first man on board for Al Jazeera English in the Americas, Will Stebbins built the journalistic team from scratch, leading it through the 2006 launch. In his present position, Stebbins continues to direct Al Jazeera’s expansion.

Stebbins is multi-lingual and embodies a wealth of broadcast experience from his wide-ranging international roles.