I was born in London, educated in London and Cologne, and have long, strong ties to Melbourne, Australia. I'm a journalist, presenter/ moderator, panel chair, (self-)critic, and sometime songwriter/ music maker.
My current position is Senior Science Editor at DW (Deutsche Welle). I'm a multimedia journalist writing for online and broadcasting on television and radio, and social media. I also work on special, innovative projects, such as DW Discoveries, an app for smart speakers and other voice-assisted devices.
As producer and presenter of DW's science weekly, Spectrum, between 2012 and about 2015, I composed, performed and produced a series of musical interludes and outro music for the show.
I aim to store the main archive of my work on this website, covering print, radio, television and online, in a locked section. I may be willing to provide limited access upon request (once said section is running). Please understand I decided to take this step to simplify copyright and other important issues, especially for me. This site, including its archive, is not always up to date – it is by no means complete.
This archive is primarily a resource for me to keep track of what I've done and to present a "flavour" of what I do to the public and anybody interested in my work. Other than this, I do not engage in a lot of self-promotion, especially not on social networks – I can be found on Tw**ter and Lin**din, but I do not visit them often (on a kind of principle). I've been told I'm being "childish"... Well, so be it.
Since the introduction of the European Union's 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), I've removed all open access links to content hosted by other websites. There's simply no way of knowing what data third-party sites suck up ... and I'd rather not be responsible for inadvertently leading any visitors to my website down any dark alleys.
I may, occasionally, reproduce the odd article of mine publicly, and host it here.
While my domain provider and website host collects some data on traffic, I've asked them stop tracking, recording or storing any visitor IP addresses (essentially, means by which they can identify your personal computer).
Your visit here *should be* anonymous. I have not programmed any cookies – I wouldn't even know how to do so.
However, my domain host may track your location – that is, the country from which your request (visit) appears to have originated (I say "appears to have originated" because you may be using a virtual private network, a VPN, or other means of obfuscation, and if you do, that's no business of mine). They may also track how you arrived at my site (for instance, such as a direct "request" if you explicitly type this site's URL into a browser and hit "go," or via a search engine query, or a link on a third-party's website). I cannot be responsible for any links to my site hosted by other sites. However, I will say that if link to my site in good faith and with good intention, then thank you very much.
If you feel there's been a privacy breach of some kind, please let me know, and I will do my best to take it up with my provider.
As I say, this website does not use cookies. Not knowingly, anyway – I have not programmed any cookies myself. I, personally, do not want to collect any data on visitors to this website.
This is a non-commercial website – that is, there is no shop. But I do use this website as a means to present and promote some of the things I do professionally for anyone who may be interested in asking me to speak publicly or moderate or present an event.
I also like to experiment with HTML web development for old-fashioned fun. And sometimes I even get the code right!
I am working on conforming this website to HTTPS secure protocol standards. In the meantime, please consider installing the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "HTTPS Everywhere" browser extension. It pledges to make every website you visit more secure by encrypting your communications. But don't take my word for it. I'm merely reporting what they claim!
The newspaper or online articles, and contributions to television and radio, on this website were written, compiled and for the most part produced solely by me, Zulfikar G. Abbany.
But the copyright lies with the respective publishers, and television and radio corporations.
I ask you to respect their rights. Copyright is as marked.
If any of the respective publishers or broadcast corporations take issue with this website – even now with most of the copyright-protected material under lock-and-key in a non-public archive, or removed entirely, I urge them to get in touch. I will, where necessary, oblige by removing any offending items.
Copyright for all other material, including music, photography, fiction, videos, animation, and other forms of journalism (blog-style writing published by me on this website) is owned by me. The same goes for the design and code that makes this website. Please refrain from reproducing any copyrighted material in any way, any where. Again, copyright as marked. I reserve all my rights.
Before my return to DW in 2011, I spent five years as a senior journalist in news and current affairs with ABC Radio Australia and Australia Network (TV) in Melbourne.
I have also worked freelance for the following companies and organisations as a writer and/or broadcaster, voice artist, public speaker, moderator, or translator (German to English):
The Independent and The Independent on Sunday (UK).
New Statesman (UK).
Deutsche Welle (D).
New Scientist (UK).
The Observer (UK).
The Age (AUS).
The Scotsman (UK).
ABC Radio National (AUS).
Sydney Morning Herald (AUS).
Penguin eBooks (UK).
WDR5 (D).
Gruppe 5 Filmproduktion (D).
Dürbeck + Dohmen (D).
DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga (D).
Maritim-Film GmbH (D).
Agentur Ost West (D).
Fresh Frames (D).
picturemusic&sound (D).
European Vaccines Initiative (B).
The Center for International Security and Governance at Bonn University (D).
AmerikaHaus e.V. NRW (D).
European XFEL (D).
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron – DESY (The German Electron Synchrotron) (D).
The Battle of Ideas – Academy of Ideas, London (UK; pro bono)
za [at] zulfikarabbany [dot] com.
If you wish to contact me regarding my work at DW, please use this email address:
zulfikar [dot] abbany [at] dw [dot] com
Please refrain from adding me to any mailing lists, including those for press releases, without my prior permission. Without my consent, your emails will adopt a mysterious habit of landing in a trash or spam folder.
Thanks!
[August 2019]
The following sections are inactive or still need re-coding:
locked
general formatting
