60
|
ISSUE 1 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
think deep down inside, I’ve
always wanted to become a
journalist. I grew up
between Egypt and the US. I
remember as a young child
imitating children's
programmes and saying “So
and so sent us this letter” and
becoming a mock presenter. For the
longest time I knew I wanted a
career in broadcasting, but I didn’t
know how or what.
I started in my second year in
university in Doha as an intern in
the local channel as a music DJ. In
2006, I moved to London with my
husband for his job at the BBC, and
I did a master's in broadcast
journalism. That programme
required you to do work
experience. I applied for work
experience at the BBC World
Service and that’s how I started at
the BBC.
How did you end up in Egypt
reporting on the revolution?
I was sent from London in June
2011 as the bureau producer for the
BBC correspondent in Cairo. I was
there for six months on the ground
and during that time I would report
intermittently, but not full time.
Then I came back to London,
and there was a programme called
the Bilingual Reporters Course, in
which they take new reporters who
speak English and another
language and train them to report
in both languages. In my case, it
was English and Arabic. It was
perfect timing, because this was the
time when the Middle East was
exploding with stories.
The Egypt story at that time was
picking up momentum. There was
always something happening. So I
was sent quite frequently to Egypt
over the last three years. I reported
BBC World Service journalist Shaimaa Khalil was the 2014 AIB
Award winner for Radio Personality of the Year. Khalil came to
international prominence during her coverage of the uprising in
Egypt. In September 2014, the BBC relocated her to Pakistan.
Khalil talks to
The Channel
from Islamabad about her
experience on the ground in one of the most tumultuous periods
in Egypt’s history and the difficulties of reporting in one of
international journalism’s most challenging periods
PERSONALITY
I
OF THE YEAR
THE CHANNEL
|
JOURNALISM
