Hugh Miles is a
freelance journalist and author, a presenter, producer and consultant specialising in the
Middle East. Miles is the founder of
Arab Digest a private members club offering expert commentary and analysis on the Middle East and North Africa, and contributing editor of ''Arab Media and Society'', a media journal published by the
American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
's Centre for Television Journalism.
Background
Hugh Miles is the son of retired British diplomat,
Oliver Miles and his wife Julia, a social worker. He was born in
Jedda,
Saudi Arabia in 1977. Miles was educated in
Libya, at the
Dragon School,
Oxford, and at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
. He studied
Arabic at
Pembroke College,
Oxford University, and English Literature at
Trinity College, Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
. During a one-year student exchange programme with the
Sorbonne University in
Paris, Miles worked as the Nightlife Editor for ''
Time Out Paris'', also reviewing restaurants and shops. His work included sampling every
crêpe house in Paris.
On the day Miles graduated from university, he flew to
Beverly Hills,
Los Angeles, to start work as a Development Director for
Oscar-winning producer
Michael Phillips (''Taxi Driver'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''The Sting''). Besides working on a big budget script set in wartime Cairo, he helped package movies, raise finance, attract talent, manage scriptwriters and pitch projects.
He is married to an
Egyptian
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
named Dina. They have three children and live in
Cairo.
Journalist
Miles' first and most formative experience of professional journalism was as an office boy at the ''
News of the World
The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...
'' in Dublin. In 2000, Miles was chosen as ''
The Times''/
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
Young Journalist of the Year.
Among his many published articles are:
* "Watching the War on
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
"
* "Inconvenient Truths"
* "Lockerbie: was it Iran? Syria? All I know is, it wasn't the man in prison"
* "Lockerbie Trial is an Historic Miscarriage of Justice"
Miles's reporting on Saudi Arabia has appeared on the front pages of th
GuardianTelegraphIndependentan
New York Times In 2015 he broke the exclusive story that a senior Saudi prince was calling for regime change in Saudi Arabia, a historic development that was picked up globally and even impacted on th
Tadawulor Saudi stock market.
In March 2016 he wrote the semina
Guardianarticle exposing the Saudi government's secret kidnap programme targeting defectors and dissidents living in the West.
In 2017 Miles produced the investigative BBC TV documentar
“Kidnapped! Saudi Arabia’s Missing Princes”about the Saudi government’s secret programme to kidnap and murder Saudi defectors and dissidents living in Europe. The programme was broadcast in September 2017 on BBC Newsnight, BBC World, BBC Arabic and BBC News.
In 2018 Miles was Specialist Producer on the critically acclaimed BBC 2 serie
"House of Saud - Family at War"which was broadcast in January and February Feb 2018.
In February 2018 Miles worked on the BBC investigation into the so-called “anti-corruption drive” that saw many Saudi princes and business moguls locked up in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton. The programme was broadcast o
BBC Newsnightand lead to the prompt release of one of the highest profile detainees, Prince Walid bin Talal.
In March 2018 Miles worked on th
BBC investigationthe case of Princess Latifa Al Maktoum, the daughter of the billionaire ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. She tried to flee Dubai for India but the yacht she was travelling on was stormed by the Indian coast guard near Goa and she was taken back to her father’s palace by force.
In October 2018 Miles worked on the BBC investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi for the fast turnaround documentar
"Saudi Crown Prince on Trial" He also worked with BBC Newsnight on several other Khashoggi related TV programmes includin
“What we know so far”“What more can we learn from his death?”and
profile of Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Author
Hugh Miles is the author of two books:
* "Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World"
* "Playing Cards in Cairo"
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Hugh
1977 births
People educated at The Dragon School
British male journalists
British writers
Arabists
Living people