Yalda Hakim: ‘social media can never compete with trusted news outlets’

To land her dream job, the Afghan-Australian journalist moved to London, which expanded her reach even further. But as Hakim tells The Binge Guide, no matter how far she roams, Australia still has “an incredibly special place in my heart”.

Yalda Hakim is accustomed to breaking news. But last year, the celebrated BBC World News

journalist found herself making global headlines when she took a phone call, live on air, from a Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan as the capital city of Kabul was falling.

Experienced at staying calm under pressure, Hakim kept the man on the line for 32 minutes, unwavering in asking varied but insistent, important questions.

Reflecting on the moment now, Hakim says her competitive spirit kept her focused.

“The beauty of live and continuous [coverage], which the BBC really does well, is [that] the machinery kicks in,” she explains to The Binge Guide from her studio in London, “which means you’ve got dozens and dozens of outlets all working to cover a story.

And you really feel it when something big happens. Then when you’re in the centre of that, the pressure of that is felt because, you know, millions of people are going to be watching you across the globe.”

Adding to the intensity of that day was Hakim’s deeply personal connection to the story. Born in Afghanistan, Hakim, now 39, was just a baby when her family fled the country during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, ultimately settling in Sydney.

From the age of seven, her passion for storytelling was sparked when she saw investigative journalist Mark Davis in action on the SBS program Dateline and knew that she wanted to do exactly what he was doing.

“It was quite a journey, then, to become one of the hosts of Dateline alongside Mark Davis, some 20 years later, when I first got that role,” she says, fondly.

“I was a young kid in Sydney, growing up and watching and consuming a lot of current affairs.” Hakim’s skills on camera eventually attracted the attention of the BBC and in 2012 she was lured to join their UK team.

Even so, she says her proud parents still hold out hope she will eventually return to

Sydney. On a visit home in December when Covid travel restrictions were lifted, “I was

sitting in my parent’s backyard, and they’ve got these beautiful big gum trees and a pool

and life just felt picture perfect,” she recalls.

“My son was running around the backyard barefoot, chasing the dog and grabbing the hose. He was having a quintessentially Australian moment in childhood,” she adds, “and it took me back.

The smell of a perfectly mowed lawn took me back to my childhood. I had a lot of

nostalgic moments. There is so much I miss about Australia and it will always have

an incredibly special place in my heart.”

For now, though, the London-based Hakim travels the world, covering major news events and speaking with some of the most fascinating people on the planet.

“I’ve interviewed policymakers, world leaders, people who have won Nobel Peace Prizes, but the biggest interview that was most hailed and scrutinised, and got the most coverage, was my interview with Angelina Jolie,” she says with a laugh.

“Which sort of tells you everything [because] even though she was talking about an incredibly serious topic – about genocide and crimes against humanity in Cambodia and a film she was making – people were really interested and wanted to know about her divorce [from Brad Pitt].”

While that story encapsulates how much the media landscape has changed over the course of Hakim’s career – most notably the rise of social media and the increasing obsession with celebrity gossip – it hasn’t left her cynical about her chosen profession.

That’s because, Hakim says, video footage taken on smart phones and information spread via Twitter can never compete with the work done by trusted news outlets.

Although she concedes she has no problem with softer stories since there is a place for “light and shade” in the news bulletin, she insists, “We will lead with war crimes in Ukraine, the crackdown on individual liberties and rights in Russia, the Taliban pushing women out of the public eye, or mass shootings in America.”

She waits a beat then adds with a smile, “But who doesn’t want to see a cuddly panda?”

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