Stephen Sackur Biography – Stephen John Sackur born January 9, 1964 is an English journalist known for presenting HARDtalk, a current affairs interview program on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He previously served as the main Friday presenter for GMT on BBC World News and spent fifteen years as a BBC foreign correspondent.
Stephen Sackur Biography 2025
Stephen John Sackur is an English journalist who presents HARDtalk, a current affairs interview programme on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He was also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News. For fifteen years, he was a BBC foreign correspondent.
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Born: 9 January 1964 (age 60 years), Spilsby, United Kingdom
Sackur was born and raised in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Spilsby before going on to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA with honors in history. He later joined Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Henry Fellow.
About
BBC correspondent and journalist who presented HARDtalk on BBC World News.
Stephen Sackur began his journey at the BBC as a trainee in 1986 and became one of its foreign affairs correspondents in 1990. As a BBC Radio correspondent, he reported on significant events such as the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990. During the Gulf War, Sackur was embedded with the British Army for eight weeks, and he was the first correspondent to report on the massacre of the retreating Iraqi forces as they left Kuwait.
From 1992 to 1995, he served as the BBC’s correspondent in Cairo, Egypt, before relocating to Jerusalem until 1997. There, he covered major events, including the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the rise of the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat. Between 1997 and 2002, Sackur worked as the BBC’s correspondent in Washington, D.C., where he covered the Lewinsky scandal and reported on the 2000 U.S. presidential election, interviewing President George W. Bush.
Sackur faced criticism from the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention after he suggested genocide could be one of two “realistic options” for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh during an interview with Ruben Vardanyan. The institute accused Sackur of placing blame on the victims and questioned his framing of the situation.
In March 2025, Sackur drew widespread criticism for his questioning style during an interview with Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana. While discussing the environmental impacts of oil extraction, Sackur pressed Ali aggressively about carbon emissions despite Ali’s points regarding Guyana’s low deforestation rates. This interview sparked debates in the media about perceived Western hypocrisy towards developing nations.
Sackur’s father, Robert (1930 – February 18, 2022), was a farmer and served as the Labour Party candidate for the Horncastle and Holland with Boston constituencies in the 1966 and 1970 elections. He owned Woolham Farm and had a background in Agriculture from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Robert was an active member of the Labour Party and later the SDP. Sackur’s mother, Sallie Caley, married Robert in 1961 and was the first person to represent a political party on the Spilsby Rural District Council after winning a seat in 1970. His family background includes connections to various political and social figures, including his maternal uncle, who also attended Emmanuel College and studied Archaeology.