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BBC to pull the curtain on HARDtalk, host Stephen Sackur criticises timing

Oct 16, 2024 08:06 AM IST

HARDtalk, the BBC's interview program known for tough questioning, will end in March 2025 due to budget cuts. Presenter Stephen Sackur criticized the timing.

The BBC has announced plans to end HARDtalk, its long-running interview programme known for posing tough questions to world leaders, as part of broader budget cuts. Grappling with a deficit of £500 million, the BBC is hoping to reduce costs with 130 layoffs in its news division, with HARDtalk becoming its latest casualty.

HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur shared his thoughts on the end of the show.(X/@stephensackur)
HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur shared his thoughts on the end of the show.(X/@stephensackur)

The job cuts are part of a larger plan to lay off 500 employees, announced earlier this year by BBC Director General Tim Davie. In a recent speech, Davie called for increased government funding for global news through BBC World Service, warning that countries like Russia and China are exploiting gaps left by the World Service to spread unchecked propaganda.

However, HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur criticised Davie for sanctioning the end of the long-running interview show days after he appealed to the government to provide £50 million to fund the World Service, the Time reported.

“Sad news for me”

English journalist Stephen Sackur, who has presented HARDtalk since 2005, took to the social media platform X to share his thoughts on the final curtain call for the in-depth interview show that first aired in 1997. He called it “depressing news” for those who believe in the importance of independent, well-researched journalism.

“Today BBC News has announced plans to close BBC HARDtalk after 3 decades holding the world’s politicians and powerbrokers to account. This is sad news for me personally, but much more important, I think it’s depressing news for the BBC and all who believe in the importance of independent, rigorous deeply-researched journalism,” Sackur, 60, wrote on X.

The British journalist said that HARDtalk has long operated with one mission - “to hold to account those who all too often avoid accountability in their own countries.” He gave examples of interviews with leaders like Imran Khan, Hugo Chavez, Emmanuel Macron, Recep Tayep Erdogan and countless others as proof.

The show will finish in March 2025 after nearly three decades on air.

“Brilliant team disbanded”

Sackur also questioned the timing of the job cuts, noting that Director General Tim Davie is simultaneously advocating for more government funding to support the World Service.

However, the timing may be too late to save HARDtalk, which has been a key part of the World Service's mission to deliver truthful, democratic journalism, he said.

“A brilliant team of producers and researchers is being disbanded just as BBC DG Tim Davie is trying to persuade the British Govt that the journalism of the BBC World Service is such a vital expression of democratic soft power that the taxpayer must fund it. Whatever the outcome of that, it seems it will be too late to save HARDtalk - for so long a pillar of the World Service schedule,” the presenter said on X.

Sackur ended his note by saying that he was enormously fortunate to have had the opportunity to pursue journalism within the BBC. “I know how much HARDtalk has been valued by viewers and listeners all over the world. It’s been my privilege to be a small part of their lives,” he wrote, adding that he would be looking for new opportunities next year.

According to Deadline, BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness said that the latest round of cuts will “help meet the BBC’s savings and reinvestment challenge.”

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