Draft:David Nikuradze

David Nikuradze (born November 11, 1975) is a Georgian journalist and the U.S. correspondent for the Broadcasting Company Rustavi 2.

Biography

In 1999, he graduated from the faculty of Journalism at Tbilisi State University. He completed an internship at a Turkish television station and later participated in a special program in Belgium focused on issues related to the Enlargement of the European Union and European Neighbourhood Policy.

Career

David Nikuradze began his journalistic career at the age of 18. Initially, he worked for the newspaper Dvrita. In 1995, together with a team of young journalists who had moved from the television company "Ibervizia", he began preparing the night news program "Kvishis Saati" for the First Channel of the Georgian TV. Since 1998, David Nikuradze has been working in the news department of the broadcasting company Rustavi 2. David Nikuradze is the first and, to date, the only Georgian journalist to conduct an exclusive interview with the President of the United States. This interview took place at the White House, just a few days before President George W. Bush's visit to Georgia.

In addition to news and analytical reports, Nikuradze has produced several documentary films, including Alaska, U.S. Aviation Security After September 11 attacks, and Economic Rehabilitation of the Tskhinvali Region (the only documentary film produced by Georgian media about South Ossetia following the first armed conflict there).

Nikuradze has covered the U.S. presidential elections of 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024, the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and prepared reports from the Vatican during the death of Pope John Paul II. He also reported from Turkish hospitals during the avian influenza epidemic and has interviewed numerous prominent politicians and public figures. Nikuradze was the first Georgian journalist to cover the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. During the Iraq War, he spent two months at the U.S. military base in As-Saliya, Qatar, preparing reports on the Iraq conflict. In June 2009, David Nikuradze produced programs from Beverly Hills about the death of global music icon Michael Jackson. In 2011, he covered the attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utøya, Norway, carried out by Anders Behring Breivik. He also reported on the sudden death of Whitney Houston from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and the singer's funeral in Newark, New Jersey.

David Nikuradze has also produced a short documentary film on the fashion business in Italy and interviewed Ana Bulgari, a heiress of the renowned Italian jewelry brand Bulgari. In 2011, he prepared a report for CNN on the New Year traditions celebrated in Georgia.

David Nikuradze has been interviewed numerous times by international media about the political situation in Georgia. He has collaborated with Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

Since 2004, David Nikuradze has been working as a US correspondent for Rustavi 2, primarily preparing reports from the U.S. State Department, the White House, Congress, the United Nations, and other international organizations based in the United States.