STEPHEN SACKUR
Stephen Sackur is one of the most respected and talented news reporters in the country. He joined the BBC as a graduate trainee and spent many years as a foreign correspondent, covering the 1989 revolutions and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the first Gulf War. He was based in Cairo from 1992 to 1995, and in Jerusalem from 1995 to 1997. He then moved to Washington, where he covered the 2000 election.
Stephen presented HARDtalk from 2005 to the final episode in March 2025. For nearly 20 years, as the lead presenter of the BBC's HARDtalk, he deployed a fearless, forensic style of questioning as the programme's inquisitor-in-chief. In June 2025, Stephen joined Times Radio as a regular presenter of The Times at One.
Hard Truth: 10 Investigations That Shook the World – and Why They Matter Now
Drawing on his long and distinguished reporting career, Stephen Sackur mounts a passionate case for truth-telling in the face of authoritarian political power, organised crime, and a monopolistic tech elite. In Hard Truth, he issues a rallying cry for the vital and continuing role of investigative journalism in holding the powerful to account.
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From Daniel Ellsberg's exposé of the US government's Pentagon Papers, to Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption fight in Russia, via Daphne Caruana Galizia, who took on systemic corruption in Malta, Hard Truth highlights ten dramatic cases when brave journalists told truth to power, sometimes paying the ultimate price.
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In a world turned toxic by disinformation, where lies are weaponised and the truth is targeted, independent journalists are increasingly on the frontline of the fight to save democracy. Hard Truth demonstrates that it is a fight that can still be won.
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