Stephen Sackur

Veteran foreign correspondent and long-time presenter of BBC’s HARDtalk radio show, Stephen Sackur discusses ten investigations that shook the world. 

From Woodward and Bernstein’s exposé of a crooked American president to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia who confronted corruption in Malta, Hard Truth explores ten dramatic cases where journalists showed astonishing bravery in uncovering the truth, sometimes paying the ultimate price. In telling these stories, Sackur also asks profound questions about the nature – and future – of journalism itself. Is it enough to bear witness and move on? What does impartiality mean when the truth itself is drowning in a sea of distraction, distortion and disinformation? Should journalists become “activists for truth”?

In a media landscape dominated by a handful of tech oligarchs, in which lies are weaponised and reality is warped by algorithms, independent journalists are increasingly on the front line of the fight to save democracy itself. In Hard Truth, Sackur salutes them – and argues that this is a battle which can still be won. 

Stephen Sackur 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 presented HARDtalk from 2005 to the final episode in March 2025, spending two decades holding politicians to account. In June 2025, Stephen joined Times Radio as a regular presenter of The Times at One.