Zeinab Badawi
Encyclopedia
Zeinab Badawi is a Sudanese-British
television
and radio
journalist
. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News (now known as ITV News at 5:30), and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow
(1989–1998), before joining BBC News
. Badawi is currently the presenter of World News Today
broadcast on both BBC Four
and BBC World News. As a flagship news and analysis programme of the BBC
, it is aimed for audiences who want more depth to their daily coverage.
and has lived in Britain since the age of three. Her great-grandfather, Sheikh Babiker Badri, fought against Kitchener
's British forces at the Battle of Omdurman
in 1898 and pioneered women's education in Sudan. Badawi's father was a newspaper editor in Sudan committed to social reform who, when the family moved to the UK, joined the BBC's Arabic Service. Badawi speaks Arabic but not fluently and is married with two sons and two daughters. She was educated at Hornsey High School for Girls in North London
, before going up to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Hilda's College
, Oxford University. At Oxford, Badawi was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society
. In 1988 she moved back to London to pursue a full time one year MA at School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), University of London
in Politics and Anthropology of the Middle East, graduating with Distinction in 1989.
in 1988. Bedawi co-presented Channel 4 News from 1989 until 1998 when she joined the BBC
.
At the BBC Badawi worked as presenter and reporter for Westminster
live political programmes for five years. She also worked on BBC radio
as a regular presenter of The World Tonight
on Radio 4
and BBC World Service
's Newshour.
In 2005, Badawi became the new presenter of The World on BBC Four
, the UK's first daily news bulletin devoted principally to international news. In May 2007 the programme was rebranded as World News Today and is also shown on the BBC World News channel.
She is a regular presenter of the BBC interview programme HARDtalk
. In an exclusive interview in May 2009, Badawi interviewed Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir
, the first serving head of state to be charged with war crimes.
In November 2009, Badawi was named International TV Personality of the Year in the Annual Media Awards, the international media excellence awards organised by the Association for International Broadcasting
.
Since 2010, in addition to her presenting role on BBC World News, Badawi has presented on the BBC News Channel and the BBC News at Five
.
Badawi was awarded an Honorary Doctorate
of Letters by the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS) in recognition of her achievements in journalism on 21 July 2011.
and a Council Member of the Overseas Development Institute
.
She is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery (since 2004) and the British Council
.
In June 2011 her appointment to the advisory board of the New College of the Humanities
was announced.
Badawi is founder and chair of the Africa Medical Partnership Fund (AfriMed), a charity which aims to help local medical professionals in Africa.
Sudanese in the United Kingdom
Sudanese in the United Kingdom including Sudanese-born immigrants to the UK and their British-born descendants are an extremely diverse national group, especially in terms of political and religious views. It is thought that the UK is home to the oldest Sudanese diaspora in the Western World, as...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News (now known as ITV News at 5:30), and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
(1989–1998), before joining BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
. Badawi is currently the presenter of World News Today
World News Today
World News Today is a current affairs news programme produced by BBC News and presented by Zeinab Badawi. It was originally conceived as a morning television show aimed at American audiences, hosted by George Alagiah, but later expanded to six editions a day aimed at different markets...
broadcast on both BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
and BBC World News. As a flagship news and analysis programme of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, it is aimed for audiences who want more depth to their daily coverage.
Background and Education
Badawi was born in SudanSudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
and has lived in Britain since the age of three. Her great-grandfather, Sheikh Babiker Badri, fought against Kitchener
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
's British forces at the Battle of Omdurman
Battle of Omdurman
At the Battle of Omdurman , an army commanded by the British Gen. Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad...
in 1898 and pioneered women's education in Sudan. Badawi's father was a newspaper editor in Sudan committed to social reform who, when the family moved to the UK, joined the BBC's Arabic Service. Badawi speaks Arabic but not fluently and is married with two sons and two daughters. She was educated at Hornsey High School for Girls in North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
, before going up to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Hilda's College
St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006....
, Oxford University. At Oxford, Badawi was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society
Oxford University Broadcasting Society
The Oxford University Broadcasting Society was a student society at the University of Oxford, England. It covered radio and television broadcasting....
. In 1988 she moved back to London to pursue a full time one year MA at School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
(SOAS), University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
in Politics and Anthropology of the Middle East, graduating with Distinction in 1989.
Journalism and Awards
After Oxford, Badawi was a researcher and broadcast journalist for Yorkshire TV from 1982 to 1986. After a spell at BBC Manchester she joined Channel 4 NewsChannel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
in 1988. Bedawi co-presented Channel 4 News from 1989 until 1998 when she joined the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
At the BBC Badawi worked as presenter and reporter for Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
live political programmes for five years. She also worked on BBC radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
as a regular presenter of The World Tonight
The World Tonight
The World Tonight is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10pm news. It features news, analysis and comment on domestic and world issues...
on Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
and BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
's Newshour.
In 2005, Badawi became the new presenter of The World on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
, the UK's first daily news bulletin devoted principally to international news. In May 2007 the programme was rebranded as World News Today and is also shown on the BBC World News channel.
She is a regular presenter of the BBC interview programme HARDtalk
HARDtalk
Hardtalk is a flagship BBC television programme, consisting of in-depth half-hour one-on-one interviews.It is broadcast four days a week on BBC World News and the BBC News channel. Launched in 1997, much of its worldwide fame is due to its global reach via BBC World...
. In an exclusive interview in May 2009, Badawi interviewed Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir
Omar al-Bashir
Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister...
, the first serving head of state to be charged with war crimes.
In November 2009, Badawi was named International TV Personality of the Year in the Annual Media Awards, the international media excellence awards organised by the Association for International Broadcasting
Association for International Broadcasting
The Association for International Broadcasting - AIB - is the industry association that represents and supports international television and radio broadcasters....
.
Since 2010, in addition to her presenting role on BBC World News, Badawi has presented on the BBC News Channel and the BBC News at Five
BBC News at Five
The BBC News at Five is an hour long news programme broadcast from Monday to Friday at 17:00 on the BBC News channel. The programme is fronted by BBC News at Ten anchor Huw Edwards from Monday-Thursday, the Friday edition is fronted by Gavin Esler...
.
Badawi was awarded an Honorary Doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
of Letters by the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
(SOAS) in recognition of her achievements in journalism on 21 July 2011.
Public positions
Badawi has been an adviser to the Foreign Policy CentreForeign Policy Centre
The Foreign Policy Centre is a British think tank specialising in foreign policy. It was formed in 1998 and launched by Tony Blair with the aim of developing a "vision of a fair and rule-based world order". It is pro-European. It has its origins on the centre-left of British politics, but works...
and a Council Member of the Overseas Development Institute
Overseas Development Institute
The Overseas Development Institute is one of the leading independent think tanks on international development and humanitarian issues. Based in London, its mission is "to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement...
.
She is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery (since 2004) and the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
.
In June 2011 her appointment to the advisory board of the New College of the Humanities
New College of the Humanities
New College of the Humanities is a proposed new private for-profit undergraduate college in London, England, the creation of which was announced in June 2011 by the philosopher A.C. Grayling, its founder and first master...
was announced.
Badawi is founder and chair of the Africa Medical Partnership Fund (AfriMed), a charity which aims to help local medical professionals in Africa.