Bestoon Othman Khalid

Bestoon Othman Khalid is a journalist and political commentator, based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and affiliated with Rudaw Media Network. He has been in the industry, since 2006, working as translator, reporter, editor, anchorman, and radio and TV host for Radio Nawa and Rudaw Media Network, under freelancing and also full-time contracts. He has also contributed to news programs for the CNN-Turkey.

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Bestoon reported the fall of Mosul in June 2014. He was also one of the first journalists reporting from inside Sinjar, hours after the town was retaken from ISIS in November 2015. Bestoon became a well-known journalist after reporting civil causalities, in Turkish aggressions against the PKK in Kurdistan Region of Iraq in June 2020, forcing the Turkish minister of defense to officially respond to the reports. His reports went viral on twitter, leading to a controversial discussion among Turkish public, in addition to the politicians and officials inside the Turkish parliament.

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Apart from his professional career in journalism as an adult, Bestoon has been active in the media since his childhood. At the age of nine, he published Cholaka, a magazine for children, with three of his friends. Published in 1996, during the civil war in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Cholaka was the first of its kind in spreading light of hope and peace among the children amidst the war. Bestoon was then selected among hundreds of his peers to host a children show in a local TV station in Sulaimani, where he worked for three years, until 2000.

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Throughout his career in journalism Bestoon has interviewed hundreds of people. With his deep knowledge and bold questions, he has always challenged his guests and went into debates with them, instead of having regular interviews. Bestoon is trilingual in Kurdish, English and Turkish. He is married and father to two daughters.

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Bestoon has reported from inside stories, conducted  interviews with politicians, researchers, policy-makers and key decision-makers, moderated debates on controversial topics and hosted conferences. To watch some of his works, click here.