The BIR was founded in 2006 by Kira Kay and Jason Maloney, two longtime network news producers who recognized the diminishing supply of international news content on American television.  The BIR starts with the premise that only a truly informed public can realize its full potential and that now is not a time when we can afford to avert our eyes from global developments that increasingly impact us at home.  Our name draws on the legacy of the old bureau system run by the networks all across the world until severe cutbacks in the 1990s.  We hope that through our productions we can replace a fraction of the excellent work they provided to us for decades.  

Our inaugural report, on the pending Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia, aired December 18, 2006 on PBS Newshour.  To date it is the only coverage on the subject to air on American television.  In the coming months and years the BIR plans to bring much more programming like this to an American audience we KNOW is hungry for objectively reported, in-depth foreign affairs news.

Kira Kay

Co-Founder

Kira Kay is a television news journalist based in New York, whose international work has been seen on PBS, ABC, CBS and CNN.  Recently she covered US military actions in Africa for Dan Rather Reports, explored the economic impact of a rising global middle class for PBS NOW, reported on the plight of Iraqi refugees in Jordan for PBS Wide Angle and served as correspondent and producer for a multiple award-winning report on the conflict in Northern Uganda for PBS Newshour and HDNet World Report.

In 2004, Kira received an Emmy nomination for her work reporting on the Darfur crisis for CBS News 60 Minutes. In 2002, she was one of only a handful of American journalists allowed access to the war-torn province of Aceh, Indonesia, and returned to Aceh immediately after the tsunami in late 2004. In 2005, Kira consulted for the New York Times on their official submission to the PBS America at the Crossroads series, "Indonesia: Struggle for the Soul of Islam".

In 2004, Kira was awarded a Pew Journalism Fellowship in residence at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she focused on war on terror operations in the Asia Pacific region.

In 2003, Kira completed her Master’s Degree in foreign policy at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. As part of a research team sponsored by the United Nations, she traveled to Sierra Leone to examine security threats and post-conflict reconstruction.

As a Fulbright scholar in Southeast Asia from 2001-2002, Kira covered various regional stories for American news outlets, including the release from house arrest of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

From 1992 to 2001 Kira worked for ABC News, producing for the magazine shows Primetime Live and 20/20. Assignments included an hour-long documentary on death row in Angola, Louisiana; a personal history of a small Ukrainian village and its residents during the holocaust; an investigation into the early release policy of the Los Angeles jails system; and the story of an Amish community changed by the arrival of its first black resident.

Kira is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a fellow of the US-Japan Foundation Leadership Program.

Jason Maloney

Co-Founder

Jason Maloney is a freelance news and documentary producer living in New York.  In December 2007, he completed a feature report for HDNet on Nashi, Russia's pro-Putin youth group.  Also recently, he produced segments for PBS Newshour and HDNet World Report on the civil war in Northern Uganda, and an hour-long special for PBS Now on publicly financed elections in the US. 

From 2005 to early 2006 he developed and served as editorial producer on a major documentary for the New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Company on nuclear proliferation and the AQ Khan network.  The report, called “Nuclear Jihad”, recently won a DuPont Award.

In the summer of 2004, Jason traveled to the Darfur region of Sudan to report for the CBS News program 60 Minutes on the humanitarian crisis there.  His footage captured some of the first images of atrocities committed within Darfur itself.

From 2002 to 2003, he worked with an investigative unit at New York Times Television on two co-productions for PBS Frontline.  "Chasing the Sleeper Cell" and "A Dangerous Business" both earned substantial recognition.  While at NYTTV, Jason also produced reports for PBS Newshour on the Iraqi Opposition (2003) and PBS Now on Saudi financing of terror (2002).

While based in Southeast Asia in 2001-2002, Jason produced, shot and edited "A Dirty War" for PBS Now with Bill Moyers on the civil war in Aceh, Indonesia.

In 1999, he produced his first independent documentary while on a Pew Journalism Fellowship in Guinea-Bissau and France.

From 1996 to 2001 Jason worked at ABC News Primetime Live, with assignments that took him from Siberia to Yemen to the Deep South. "The Unwanted Children of Russia" won the DuPont, Overseas Press Club, and RFK awards. "Germ Warfare: Weapons of Terror" and "Attack on the USS Cole" both won the New York Festivals Award.

Jason holds a BA from Dartmouth College and a Masters from the London School of Economics in International Relations.  He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jason's first book, Your America:  Democracy's Local Heroes, will be published in July, 2008 by Palgrave-McMillan

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