EL’s Bryce-Pease elected to top UN media post
THE SABC’s UN bureau chief, East London-born Sherwin BrycePease, has been elected president of the UN Correspondents’ Association.
It will be the first time an African leads the team of correspondents in New York since the establishment of the association, the SABC announced.
He will interact with the UN secretary-general and his deputy, and be responsible for ensuring the UN and its member states are accessible to the media.
Last week, Bryce-Pease and videographer Aaron Berger were named joint-silver medal winners in the broadcasting category at the United Nations Correspondent Association Awards.
The award was a notch up from the bronze they received in 2014 for winning the Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for television and radio.
The African Editors Forum congratulated BrycePease on his election, saying it was a major achievement and boded well for journalism in Africa. Its chairperson Jovial Rantao said: “We celebrate with Sherwin and the SABC over the achievement. We all have confidence that he will not only do well, but will help push the African agenda.”
The gala awards event was attended by outgoing UN secretarygeneral Ban Ki-moon and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the UN Messenger of Peace.
Bryce-Pease was born in East London and graduated from Rhodes University in 2000 with a degree in journalism and media studies, and cut his teeth in broadcasting at Rhodes Music Radio.
Beginning his working career as an intern in the marketing and communications division at Rhodes, he completed an internship in marketing as Rhodes University’s representative at the International Communications Liaison Officers with Global Fluency, a global marketing and strategic communications agency with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto and New York.
Returning to South Africa in 2002, he took up a position with the SABC and has been with the organisation ever since.
He held various positions in the newsroom and in 2005 was appointed insert producer and coanchor of SABC news’ weekend breakfast show Weekend Live, and a stand-in presenter on SABC 2’s flagship show Morning Live.
In August 2008 he was appointed as the SABC’s correspondent in New York, later becoming UN bureau chief at the UN headquarters.
He has interviewed US President Barack Obama, Ban Ki-moon, three South African presidents, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelete, actor Morgan Freeman, Nobel laureates Nadine Gordimer and Shirin Ebadi, fashion designer David Tlale, and multiaward winning DJ and producer Black Coffee, to name but a few.
Recently he reported on the US presidential election race, from both Democratic and Republican conventions.
He also serves on the board of trustees of the Dag Hammarskjöld Fund for Journalists, which awards four fellowships annually to deserving media practitioners between the ages of 25 and 35 from developing countries.
Sherwin is a passionate Old Rhodian and is a trustee of the USA Rhodes University Trust, helping to secure funds in the US for underprivileged students, and over the years has personally donated generously towards Rhodes’ bursary funds.
He is a recipient of the the Emerging Old Rhodian Award. — DDR