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.
Self-study activity:
Watch Zeinab discussing freedom of expression and what it means for her to live in the UK and how her adopted country has given full meaning to her life.
Answer the questions below to test your understanding of the ideas Zeinab puts forward.
1 Why is 1956 significant?
2 Which two jobs did Zeinab's father do?
3 Why doesn't Zeinab take liberty for granted?
4 What's the name of Zeinab's programme with the BBC?
5 Why is it odd to distinguish between British news and international news?
6 How much does the British government control the BBC?
You can check the answers by reading the transcript here.
Hi, I'm Zeinab Badawi. I'm a television presenter and this is "See Britain Through My Eyes". I was born in Sudan at the time when the British were in power there. But I moved with my family to London when I was 2 years old. Sudan got its independence in 1956.
My father had been involved in pre - independence politics and he ceased to be in politics and he moved into journalism. But by about '62 - '63 it was quite difficult for my father to stay in the country. There'd been a military dictatorship a few years earlier. So, he came ahead of the family and in fact he got a job with the BBC Arabic Service at Bush House.
I think the key thing that we take for granted here in Britain is freedom of speech, freedom of expression.
Having reported and worked in many countries abroad, I have seen and witnessed firsthand how there is a much tighter state control of the media. People aren't often given a true or balanced or accurate picture of what's actually going on. As we speak, there are people languishing in jail because they dared to speak out. I just stand on the steps there and I do a trail.
Obviously, democracy here is an old robust one. You can vote a government in, you can vote a government out. And so, I suppose my background means that I don't take this liberty for granted and I believe it is a real cornerstone of democracy.
Are we ready?
Okay.
How soon will debt - ridden Greece get the financial rescue package it's demanding?
My news program "World News Today", it's an evening program that goes out in Britain on BBC 4 Television at 7 p.m. and it goes out on our international channel BBC World News. We reach something like 250 million households.
The outright winner in Sudan's landmark elections, the opposition say, is fraudulent.
I'll do it again actually.
Too long; it's gonna be too long.
We really try and find stories which affect the global citizen. How will he, the country and the international community, respond?
That's World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi.
I should have written it and then I would have done it to time. So sorry, I was doing it a bit on the hoof.
I know it's cliche to say but it's true that globalization means everybody's lives are very interlinked. We saw that with the financial crisis.
Aaron, could I just borrow you for a sec?
I wanted to ask you about the Greece thing 'cause I'm gonna be leading with that, so what have you done on it? Foot down at the moment.
But we've just heard from Angela Merkel who says there is no way that the Eurozone won't come to some type of agreement.
I mean in the old days, we used to say "foreign news" and "domestic news". And now actually, it sounds a bit odd if we say "foreign news" and "British news" because the two live off each other. They're almost one and the same.
Tools of the trade. Transparency, accountability of government actions is absolutely crucial and frankly, that's the role of the media. You know, shining a harsh spotlight on truth and sunlight after all is a very strong antiseptic, isn't it?
Alright Attiya, I'm ready to rehearse when you are.
This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi.
Europe bickers over the Greek bailout.
A narrow escape for the British Ambassador in Yemen: he survives a suicide attack on his convoy. The government blames Al-Qaeda.
I'm not sure if people abroad really understand what the BBC is about because I think the fact that the BBC is paid for by the British taxpayer, people believe that therefore the British government has actually an editorial input into what the BBC actually does. And I think they find it quite hard to understand that the BBC's constitution means that we absolutely, absolutely cherish and protect and fight for our independence. So, we don't even have an arm's-length relationship with the government. We just don't deal with the government at all. And you can see that you have the authentic pronunciation of "Al-Qaeda" because of course, my family speak Arabic. "Qaeda", it's not easy to say it even in Arabic. People like Mikhail Gorbachev say, "Oh I heard about what was going on in my own country through the BBC" and we know that the Dalai Lama listens to the World Service Radio.
So, it really is a vital, vital tool for the dissemination of information in all sorts of ways. All these things have really served to underscore that freedom of speech that we have in this country. And I suppose the BBC best epitomizes that tradition. This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi. I'm very proud to be an employee of the BBC.
My father had been involved in pre - independence politics and he ceased to be in politics and he moved into journalism. But by about '62 - '63 it was quite difficult for my father to stay in the country. There'd been a military dictatorship a few years earlier. So, he came ahead of the family and in fact he got a job with the BBC Arabic Service at Bush House.
I think the key thing that we take for granted here in Britain is freedom of speech, freedom of expression.
Having reported and worked in many countries abroad, I have seen and witnessed firsthand how there is a much tighter state control of the media. People aren't often given a true or balanced or accurate picture of what's actually going on. As we speak, there are people languishing in jail because they dared to speak out. I just stand on the steps there and I do a trail.
Obviously, democracy here is an old robust one. You can vote a government in, you can vote a government out. And so, I suppose my background means that I don't take this liberty for granted and I believe it is a real cornerstone of democracy.
Are we ready?
Okay.
How soon will debt - ridden Greece get the financial rescue package it's demanding?
My news program "World News Today", it's an evening program that goes out in Britain on BBC 4 Television at 7 p.m. and it goes out on our international channel BBC World News. We reach something like 250 million households.
The outright winner in Sudan's landmark elections, the opposition say, is fraudulent.
I'll do it again actually.
Too long; it's gonna be too long.
We really try and find stories which affect the global citizen. How will he, the country and the international community, respond?
That's World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi.
I should have written it and then I would have done it to time. So sorry, I was doing it a bit on the hoof.
I know it's cliche to say but it's true that globalization means everybody's lives are very interlinked. We saw that with the financial crisis.
Aaron, could I just borrow you for a sec?
I wanted to ask you about the Greece thing 'cause I'm gonna be leading with that, so what have you done on it? Foot down at the moment.
But we've just heard from Angela Merkel who says there is no way that the Eurozone won't come to some type of agreement.
I mean in the old days, we used to say "foreign news" and "domestic news". And now actually, it sounds a bit odd if we say "foreign news" and "British news" because the two live off each other. They're almost one and the same.
Tools of the trade. Transparency, accountability of government actions is absolutely crucial and frankly, that's the role of the media. You know, shining a harsh spotlight on truth and sunlight after all is a very strong antiseptic, isn't it?
Alright Attiya, I'm ready to rehearse when you are.
This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi.
Europe bickers over the Greek bailout.
A narrow escape for the British Ambassador in Yemen: he survives a suicide attack on his convoy. The government blames Al-Qaeda.
I'm not sure if people abroad really understand what the BBC is about because I think the fact that the BBC is paid for by the British taxpayer, people believe that therefore the British government has actually an editorial input into what the BBC actually does. And I think they find it quite hard to understand that the BBC's constitution means that we absolutely, absolutely cherish and protect and fight for our independence. So, we don't even have an arm's-length relationship with the government. We just don't deal with the government at all. And you can see that you have the authentic pronunciation of "Al-Qaeda" because of course, my family speak Arabic. "Qaeda", it's not easy to say it even in Arabic. People like Mikhail Gorbachev say, "Oh I heard about what was going on in my own country through the BBC" and we know that the Dalai Lama listens to the World Service Radio.
So, it really is a vital, vital tool for the dissemination of information in all sorts of ways. All these things have really served to underscore that freedom of speech that we have in this country. And I suppose the BBC best epitomizes that tradition. This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi. I'm very proud to be an employee of the BBC.
