Saša Petricic is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He is currently the Asia Correspondent and videojournalist for

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French- ...

's '' The National'' and other

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.c ...

programs, based in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China. He previously spent four years covering the Middle East.

Education

Petricic attended high school in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, at the North Toronto Collegiate Institute. He went on to earn a journalism degree with combined honours in

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and

East European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

Studies from

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Worl ...

. He also studied at

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricul ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and at the University of Quebec.

Career

From 1993 to 2001, Petricic covered federal politics, elections and political issues from the Canadian Parliament in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. During that time, he contributed various stories and features to

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

and CNN. He subsequently covered major events and issues from every continent as a CBC correspondent and videojournalist. In 2006, Petricic was the first CBC reporter to file stories from

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest co ...

. He covered the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and genocide in Rwanda, the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

on the U.S. and Canada's mission in Afghanistan for CBC News. From 2011 to 2015, Petricic was Middle East Correspondent for ''The National'', based in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. He covered the region's Arab Spring uprisings from Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. In 2015, Petricic was appointed China Bureau Chief for CBC in Beijing. He followed the rise in power of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

leader

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...

and a new, more assertive China. In the region, he covered standoffs between South Korea and North Korea from both countries, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, earthquakes in Nepal and typhoons in the Philippines. Petricic chronicled the arrest of Canadians

Michael Kovrig In December 2018, Canadian nationals Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were taken into custody in China. It appeared that their detention on December 10 and subsequent indictment under the state secrets law were linked to the arrest of Huawei c ...

, an ex-diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, by China on espionage charges. He also watched the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

spread from

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The pr ...

, China from its first days. Petricic has also taught television journalism at the

National University of Rwanda The National University of Rwanda (NUR; rw, Kaminuza nkuru y’u Rwanda, french: Université nationale du Rwanda, UNR) was the largest university in Rwanda. It was located at in the city of Butare and was established in 1963 by the government ...

, through the non-profit Rwanda Initiative, and conducted courses in documentary-making at the Canadian Screen Training Centre and through the London-based organization Raindance. He is a trainer for videojournalists at the CBC. Petricic has won numerous awards for his work. In 2014, his war coverage of the Syrian conflict from Aleppo and around Syria won Canada's top TV journalism award, the Canadian Screen Award for Best Reportage. Petricic also won the 1999

Canadian Association of Journalists The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ; french: Association Canadienne des Journalistes) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that offers advocacy and professional development to journalists across Canada. The CAJ was created to pro ...

Award for Investigative Journalism and the 2005 Canadian Radio and Television News Directors' Association Award for his work in Rwanda, for a story profiling Canadian Doctor James Orbinski. In August 2008, Petricic received a Gemini Nomination for Best News Feature for his documentary on activities by Christian missionaries in Thailand after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. On June 12, 2013, Petricic was arrested by Turkish forces during the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey while photographing a municipal cleanup crew clearing barricades near

Taksim Square Taksim Square ( tr, Taksim Meydanı, ), situated in Beyoğlu in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a major tourist and leisure district famed for its restaurants, shops, and hotels. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, with the c ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. He was released one day later. Hurriyet Daily News, 13 June 2013
CBC reporter detained in Taksim: It’s a first in my career
/ref>

References

External links

CBC Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petricic, Sasa Canadian television reporters and correspondents Carleton University alumni Living people Canadian people of Serbian descent Journalists from Ontario People from Ottawa Journalists imprisoned in Turkey Hope College alumni Canadian Screen Award winning journalists 20th-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian journalists Year of birth missing (living people)