Zeinab Badawi

Zeinab Badawi is one of the most senior news anchors on the BBC World News Channel and BBC4 TV. Born in Sudan, she moved to the UK aged two and has been been involved in British broadcast news for two decades working on an extensive range of programmes.

In her short ‘See Britain’ film Zeinab says that freedom of expression is something we often take for granted in the UK. She celebrates the liberties we enjoy in the UK and views them as real cornerstones of democracy. Find out more by watching the film below.

Zeinab currently presents the daily 'World News Today' programme, which attracts an audience of 250 million households from around the world.

Having reported and worked in many countries around the world where there is very tight state control of the media, Zeinab never takes freedom of expression or freedom of the press for granted. She has visited countries where people have been imprisoned and sometimes lost their lives for speaking out. She is proud being part of an industry that helps hold governments to account.

The film captures Zeinab preparing for her evening news programme, which offers a daily digest and analysis of the major news events around the world featuring interviews and debates with key international figures and commentators.

She explains how globalisation has profoundly affected how we report and present news. She believes we can no longer speak of British and international news as separate entities as the two are so interlinked and we truly are global citizens.

Earlier in her career, Zeinab co-presented Channel 4 news with John Snow for nearly a decade (1989-1998). She followed this with a stint reporting for and presenting programmes on British politics live from the BBC’s Westminster studios. Since then she’s become a familiar face presenting debates on major issues as well as being a presenter of HARDTalk, interviewing the Dalai Lama and US General Tommy Franks amongst others.

Zeinab read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford and went on to a postgraduate degree in Middle East Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London. She is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, the Centre for Contemporary British History and of the British Council.