charge of Major Series and Documentary Specials for the broadcaster Al Jazeera English. In late 2011 he had the Discussions brief added to his portfolio. During his time at Al Jazeera he commissioned and executive produced a range of one-off documentaries and series as well as creating new talk show formats. As Executive Producer of Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, directed by May Ying Welsh for Al Jazeera, Jon won a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award, an Amnesty International Media Award, a UK Foreign Press Association Feature Story of the Year Award, a George Polk Award for Journalism, and a Scripps Howard Foundation Jack R Howard Award, and was nominated for a British Academy Award and a Royal Television Society Award. In 2012 Blair was asked to create formats and commission high-profile series and one-off documentaries for Al Jazeera's new American channel and in that capacity he commissioned some of the United States' best known non-fiction film makers to make a range of documentaries and series to be shown in 2014. Before he joined Al Jazeera, Blair's feature documentary Dancing with the Devil premiered at the Silverdocs Festival in the US in June 2009 and had its Latin American premiere at the Festival do Rio, the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival in October 2009. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described Dancing with the Devil as "horribly fascinating", it portrays the bloody battle between drug lords and police in Rio de Janeiro where more than 1000 people die each year. During 2007 and early 2008, Blair made Ochberg's Orphans for Rainmaker Films, about the 1921 expedition of one Isaac Ochberg who saved nearly 200 orphans from the wreckage of post-revolutionary Russia. The film was shortlisted for an Oscar for Short Documentary. In August 2007 Blair completed Murder Most Foul a 75-minute feature documentary for More 4 about crime in South Africa with the ex-South African Shakespearean actor, Sir Antony Sher. In 2006, Blair produced and directed a multi episode comedy series for BBC1, Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy. In 2005 Jon made two one-hour drama documentaries for Discovery Networks Europe in the Zero Hour series, about the Oklahoma bomb and the plot to kill Pope John Paul II. Prior to that he worked as an Executive Producer for Discovery for eight months. In 2003–04, he produced a four-hour series – of which he produced, wrote and directed 3 hours –