Veteran journalist and former newspaper editor, Jean-Jacques Cornish started his career on radio by covering the 2003 African Union summit in Maputo for Talk Radio 702, where he is still a regular contributor after having been the group’s Africa correspondent for 10 years. He now admits that he read his first dispatches while hiding in the bushes around the conference centre, self conscious about the required manner of delivery, but admits journalism has been kind to him.

He was London Bureau chief of the South African Press Association and special correspondent to the United Nations at the age of 25. He returned to South Africa in the mid-eighties to cover the dying days of apartheid and the country’s transition to democracy. As diplomatic editor for Africa’s largest newspaper group, he travelled extensively in Europe and Africa.

He is also a correspondent for Radio France International and Agence France Presse, reporting on international affairs with particular emphasis on Africa, and a contributor to BBC, Mail and Guardian, Independent Newspaper and Media 24

For five years, he edited The Star & SA Times International, a newspaper for South African expatriates. He was assistant editor of the Pretoria News, diplomatic editor for the Independent Group and spends much of his time writing for an array of newspapers, magazines and news agencies.

For the last eight years he has been lecturing to journalism students at the Tshwane Institute of Technology – putting something back into the craft he loves so dearly.