Dr William Crawley

Dr William Crawley BA (Cambridge). D Phil (Oxford)

William Crawley was a volunteer teacher in Nigeria for 14 months in 1959-60, graduated in History from Trinity College, Cambridge, and taught for two years at St Stephens College in Delhi University. He studied for a D Phil in Modern Indian History with a Hayter Studentship at St Antony’s College Oxford, under the supervision of Professor Jack Gallagher and Dr Sarvapalli Gopal. He was a Journalist Editor and manager in the BBC World Service for 24 years working mainly in the BBC Eastern Service with responsibilities for broadcasting in Asian languages to 11 countries in south and western Asia, including the Indian subcontinent Iran Afghanistan and Burma. He was Head of the BBC Eastern Service from 1986 to 1994. Subsequently he was associated with the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University working with Dr David Page as co-director of the Media South Asia project, analysing the impact of Satellite Television on the countries of south Asia. They are co-authors of ‘Satellites over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and the Public Interest’ (Sage, New Delhi, 2001). From their subsequent collaboration at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies they co-edited (with Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena) ‘Embattled Media: Democracy, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka’ (Sage, New Delhi, 2012). The publication of ‘Satellites over South Asia…’ was accompanied by the production of a documentary film (directed by Nupur Basu) titled ‘Michael Jackson comes to Manikganj’. He was Secretary of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Bangladesh and Burma Trusts for six years to 2006. In 2007 he was invited to give the De Carle lectures at Otago University in New Zealand on Media issues in south Asia. He is on the Editorial Board of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs journal ‘Asian Affairs’ and has regularly contributed book reviews or articles to the journal over 40 years. He has written opinion pieces for news outlets including the India-based monthly news journal ‘Asian Affairs’, for the Singapore based ‘Media Asia’, for ‘ Contemporary South Asia’, ‘South Asia Diaspora’, and the ICwS website Commonwealth Opinion. He has contributed to publications and moderated events sponsored by ‘The Democracy Forum’. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a member of the Royal Society for International Affairs (Chatham House).