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Tesa Arcilla PDipJ 2008 News Correspondent and Presenter Russia Today (Moscow)
“There’s no doubt that a good journalist is not one steeped in theories because journalistic skills are honed best through experience. In this regard, JMSC has given us the privilege to share and learn from the experience of distinguished journalists who patiently allowed us to pick their brains, sincerely prepared us for the real challenges of the profession and constantly pushed us to rough it out with the best in the field and excel – with our integrity intact.”
Tesa reports from Moscow for a 24-hour news channel.
Tesa is a versatile journalist, with close to a decade of experience in print, both for a newspaper and a magazine, and on television, where she now works, as a news correspondent and presenter for Russia Today, Russia’s first 24-hour English-language news broadcaster, which has correspondents in New York, Washington, London, Paris, Delhi and Tel Aviv. One of Tesa’s first assignments was to go to Vienna to cover the spy swap between Russia and the United States, the biggest such exchange since the end of the Cold War.
“Vienna was where the spy swap was reportedly going to take place. As we were reporting it, no officials wanted to confirm the news. As we now know, it did all happen, but the media played a big role in getting this story out and it was great to be a part of it.” Before joining Russia Today, she worked for Television Broadcasts (TVB) in Hong Kong as a business producer and reporter and as a news anchor. She has freelanced for CNN, worked on a show for Al Jazeera English and was a senior writer at The Peak Magazine in Hong Kong where she profiled prominent people, including Chris Patten, the former colonial governor, and film star Jackie Chan. Prior to joining the JMSC’s Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism program in 2007, the widely traveled Tesa also wrote travel stories for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Tesa received her Bachelor of Liberal Arts Degree and Master of Arts Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from University of Asia and the Pacific in the Philippines.