A former AFP editor-in-chief, Eric Wishart is responsible for special editorial projects for the Agency’s global news management. He also lectures in journalism at Hong Kong University and Hong Kong Baptist University, teaching feature writing and conflict reporting.
As a member of AFP’s news management he drew up the AFP Charter setting out the Agency’s guiding principles; its code of ethics, which has been published in English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese; the Agency’s 20 Principles of Sourcing; and recently completed a major update of the AFP Stylebook.
Eric began his journalism career in Scotland in 1972 and joined AFP in 1984 . His positions at the Agency have included Middle East English desk head (1992-1996), Asia-Pacific editor (1996-1999), (AFP’s first non-French) editor-in-chief (1999-2005) and Asia-Pacific director (2005-2012). He has been a member of the global news management since 2013 and is based in Hong Kong.
Eric has spoken at numerous international conferences in Asia and Europe on the ethical challenges facing the media industry, in the era of fake news, disinformation and falling trust in traditional news sources.
He is a judge for the Hong Kong News Awards, vice-president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong and co-convener of its press freedom committee, and a member of PEN America and the Asian American Journalists Association.
