Norzie Pak Wan Chek is a journalist. She is a former news presenter at ntv7 and TV3. At TV3, she was an assistant assignment editor and anchored the station’s nightly news Nightline. She still anchors Nightline on a freelance basis until today. Norzie also produced and anchored Soal Jawab, the station’s weekly talk show that focused on political and sociopolitical issues in Malaysia and abroad. At ntv7, Norzie was a news broadcast journalist and an assistant producer for both the English and Malay language desk as well as an anchor for the station’s news breaks, Edisi Semasa. She additionally reported for ntv7’s investigative magazine program, Edisi Siasat which served as a check-and-balance to government agencies and activities and championed the voice of the people.
Norzie is well-known for her role in Majalah 3, TV3’s first and top semi-documentary type program that explores various issues including the environment, science and technology as well as humanitarian. As a journalist and host for the program, she gathered report materials and was responsible for developing her own story with a television crew. She was also responsible for managing the overall editorial production of notable one-off special programs on current issues with the station. Her reports included the Palestinian refugee situation in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; the war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006; the Burmese refugee situation in Mae Sot, Thailand; and the rebuilding of Japan post-Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. She and her Majalah 3 team were one of the first groups of journalists in Malaysia to go to Aceh, Indonesia with the U.S. Navy onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to report on the post-tsunami situation in 2005.
Norzie was awarded U.S. State Department grants to produce, report and host two seasons of Assalam USA, a 13-episode Ramadhan special on the lives of prominent Muslim Americans. The program garnered the Best Islamic Documentary Award during the National Islamic Media Awards ceremony in 2008.
Norzie is also highly recognized by her peers. She was named Best TV Journalist by the Ministry of Defence, Malaysia in 2003 for her report on the country’s NAVY Elite Force. Her special report on Muslims in the U.S. after 9/11, entitled Crescent Over America, was one of the final nominations for Best News/ Current Affairs Special category during the Asian Television Awards 2002.
In 2009, Norzie took a break from the media industry and did a stint in Corporate Communication with the national public transport company Prasarana, specializing in Stakeholder Relations and Issues Management. There she initiated and championed the implementation of Universal Access or barrier-free features for RapidKL buses, LRTs and premises. Her initiative led to the drafting of a Universal Access Bus Guideline by the Road Transport Department (JPJ) under the Ministry of Transport’s Committee for Transportation of the Disabled.
In 2011, she was asked by Media Prima Berhad’s management to make a career comeback in television after she interviewed U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton in a Townterview (townhall interview) during her visit to Kuala Lumpur in November 2010.
She holds a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Comparative Religion at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada and is an alumna of the East-West Center based in Honolulu, Hawai’i, an education and research organization established by the U.S Congress in 1960. It is aimed at building bridges and understanding between peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.
