Browse content similar to HARDtalk Review of the Year. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
fire to a vehicle. Those are the headlines. Time for | :00:05. | :00:15. | |
:00:15. | :00:20. | ||
Welcome to a special edition of HARDtalk, a chance to look back at | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
some of our most memorable encounters and an opportunity to | :00:24. | :00:30. | |
show you our new home at the BBC's London | :00:30. | :00:38. | |
London. This building is so steeped Let tions. | :00:38. | :00:48. | |
:00:48. | :00:55. | ||
Let us go inside and relieve a vintage year on how talk. -- relive | :00:55. | :01:04. | |
a vintage year on HARDtalk. The past year has been dominated by | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
turmoil in the Middle East. In Syria, we have seen the | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
intensification of a brutal internal conflict. In Egypt, | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
elections but no consensus on the country's future cast. HARDtalk | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
reflected on the lessons to be uprisings | :01:22. | :01:32. | |
uprisings in Tunisia. I went to the capital to meet the | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
former prisoner of conscience turned President of the nation. Now, | :01:37. | :01:45. | |
balance between the country's Islamist and secular political | :01:45. | :01:51. | |
movements. secular and all are Muslims and | :01:51. | :01:59. | |
is try is say, Look, we are a complex | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
society and we have to accept that some are secular and some are | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
Muslims and we have to work together. Everybody talks about | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
working together but when the prime minister, for example, told | :02:12. | :02:18. | |
supporters after his victory "we are in the 6th Caliphate, God | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
willing", how do you as receptionist to feel? I think that | :02:24. | :02:31. | |
was a mistake. Of course I am in favour of a modern, secularist | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
state. I do not accept and will never accept the kind of Islamist | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
state in this country. The hope was that what happened here would | :02:39. | :02:46. | |
spread. Yes. There would be a positive contagion. And that... | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
That has not happened and this is very frustrating, yes. I would like | :02:52. | :02:58. | |
so much for all of the Arab revolutions to have been like ours. | :02:58. | :03:06. | |
Egyptians surprised the world when country and in 18 days overthrew | :03:06. | :03:16. | |
the tyrant that many people thought some had | :03:16. | :03:26. | |
:03:26. | :03:27. | ||
some painful, as you say, transformed completely when we have | :03:27. | :03:35. | |
now the first civilian - for the history - a civilian president who | :03:35. | :03:43. | |
way. We now have an accountable government that is in charge of | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
business. Y business. Yentioned the election of President Morsi. Of | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
course, it was a historic landmark for this country. At the time of | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
his election, he made promises, some of which he said he could | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
deliver in 100 days, on the economy, security, everything including | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
garbage collection. The truth is, if you look at that raft of | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
promises, most have not been met. It depends on how you define them, | :04:12. | :04:16. | |
of course. If you believe one can solve the problems that have | :04:16. | :04:26. | |
:04:26. | :04:26. | ||
days, and do not think that is the right thing to do. But you did what | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
to promise to make significant change. -- but he did promise to | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
make significant change. This year, we took HARDtalk on the road to one | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
of the most under-reported and troubled corners of the Arab world, | :04:40. | :04:50. | |
prompted apprehension from Saudi Arabia to the United States. We | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
tried to reach the territory being held by jihadi militants loyal to | :04:54. | :05:04. | |
:05:04. | :05:14. | ||
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. However, we gathered footage that | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
showed the militants gaining ground. Al-Qaeda sy Al-Qaeda sying | :05:20. | :05:28. | |
advantage of a political vacuum. That put increased influence in the | :05:28. | :05:36. | |
hands of local tribal leaders with their own complex agendas. | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
This man is a tribal leader with family ties to Al-Qaeda at | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
insurgence and close contact with the government. He and his | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
entourage have in recent months been involved in efforts to | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
negotiate an end to the conflict. In your heart, do you believe there | :05:55. | :06:03. | |
can be peace, real peace and freedom, in this country as long as | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda fighters, militants inside | :06:08. | :06:18. | |
:06:18. | :06:53. | ||
What we want on HARDtalk our exclusive interviews, scoops, and | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
this is where the HARDtalk team practises the arts of persuasion. | :06:57. | :07:03. | |
One case in point came this year as the war in Syria intensified. We | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
persuaded the most senior defector from the Assad regime to give us | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
his first major interview - but not in London, in the Jordanian capital | :07:13. | :07:23. | |
:07:23. | :07:40. | ||
There are Syrians in the opposition who are deeply cynical about your | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
person person says that when you arrived | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
in Jordan after August's six, she wrote, the rats are leaving the | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
sinking ship. She implies clearly that you and the left to save your | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
skin because you believe the regime could no longer guarantee its own | :08:02. | :08:12. | |
:08:12. | :08:49. | ||
In 2012, Israel watched as newsrooms around the world reported | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
on the crumbling of the old order across the Arab world. But in | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
Israel, the focus remained firmly on Iran as the government of | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
Binyamin Netanyahu conceded military action to swart Iran's | :09:01. | :09:11. | |
:09:11. | :09:12. | ||
nuclear ambitions. -- considered military action to stop Iran's | :09:12. | :09:19. | |
nuclear ambitions. We spoke with one intelligence insider. We must | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
work to stop Iran from reaching nuclear capability. That is in the | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
vital interests of everyone, the re | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
the only country in the world which is really threatened by another | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
state which we do not even have a common border with. They want to | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
see us disappear from the Planet. If you believe in the flat, why | :09:44. | :09:52. | |
word like stupid? A negative word that you use when you talked about | :09:52. | :09:59. | |
the idea of an immediate Israeli strike? This will not serve Israeli | :09:59. | :10:06. | |
purposes. Why? First of all, we cannot stop the project by an | :10:06. | :10:15. | |
attack. Tha attack. Thanly delay a project. Second, that will create a | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
situation which would rally the leadership | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
leadership even though they are in an economic and political crisis. - | :10:26. | :10:32. | |
- that would rally Iran's public. That would provide them with the | :10:32. | :10:42. | |
:10:42. | :10:43. | ||
a nuclear military project. Four now, they tell the public they are | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
doing this for peaceful purposes. As we welcome President Obama... | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
And Governor Romney. The 2012 US presidential election | :10:55. | :11:02. | |
promised to be a cliffhanger but it challenger, won the first head-to- | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
head debate with President Obama but he could not build on that | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
momentum. The President's advantage among minorities, women, young | :11:12. | :11:18. | |
people, saw him win with something to spare. | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
Underpinning the election was a basic question - how to fix the | :11:23. | :11:30. | |
ailing US economy? For answers, I turned to one of the most | :11:30. | :11:36. | |
influential voices on Wall Street, former Fede former Fedeve chief Paul | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
Faulkner. The critical time will come after the election. Can we | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
then frame a response to the challenge that is effective and | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
timely? I have to believe that is what we will try to do and what we | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
can do. Not long ago, you said, looking at this fundamental problem | :11:55. | :12:01. | |
that the US has with its budget and its debt, you said "if, at the end | :12:01. | :12:07. | |
of the day, we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes." however, | :12:07. | :12:12. | |
that runs against the grain of what so many Americans believe at the | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
moment. No money and -- nobody understands that more than I do but | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
if we have to do it, we should do it. The great challenge will be to | :12:21. | :12:28. | |
combine the budgetary programme and deal with the Budget consistently | :12:28. | :12:36. | |
The present tax system is on the verge of breaking down. The system | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
has to be changed. Do you think that whoever leads America after | :12:41. | :12:47. | |
the next presidential election will have to abandon efforts to finesse | :12:47. | :12:53. | |
some sort of middle of the ground together and lead on this issue in | :12:53. | :13:01. | |
a way that maybe the President has shied away from. Maybe he has, but | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
I think this is his opportunity. I will be disappointed if he is | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
elected and he does not take a more comprehensive, effective, forceful | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
course of action. If he is elected, that is the signal that he has the | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
opportunity to do it. This is where the director and the | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
team over CD recording of HARDtalk. This year, one of the recurring | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
subjects for the programme has been the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
It has been a story of bail outs, budget cuts budget cuts protests | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
across Europe and the Continent's politicians and bankers desperately | :13:40. | :13:47. | |
trying to find a solution. I think there has been a big | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
element of solidarity between the countries and also a certain | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
robustness. We have been able to take decisions even though it has | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
been a very difficult situation. notice that to focus on the taking | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
of decisions. It seems to me that what we have learned over the | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
course of this crisis over the last few years is that it is impossible | :14:07. | :14:15. | |
to come together and take drugs -- difficult decisions. I would not | :14:15. | :14:23. | |
say that. In terms of European for the euro countries and their | :14:23. | :14:30. | |
ability to take hard decisions. We had a financial crisis that hit the | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
world very hard. First, it hit the US... With respect, let us stick | :14:34. | :14:41. | |
hit us all very hard. Then we had a certain element where the economy | :14:41. | :14:47. | |
was not in order. The economies of the male -- member states were not | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
in order and that is why we have these difficulties. It is not the | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
fault of the euro that they had problems in Greece. That is their | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
own responsibility and I believe we must have the eurozone countries | :15:00. | :15:08. | |
and the EU member states -- I think it the eurozone countries and the | :15:08. | :15:18. | |
:15:18. | :15:25. | ||
Another big theme for us in 2012 has been the transformation of | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
Africa into the world's fastest growing economic region. Uganda is | :15:30. | :15:38. | |
seen dynamic economic change. Not so in politics. President Museveni | :15:38. | :15:45. | |
has been in power for 27 years and term limits do not apply. This is | :15:45. | :15:55. | |
:15:55. | :15:58. | ||
not real not realmatter. I do not think we are concentrating | :15:58. | :16:07. | |
on the substance. Leaders in Africa awful long time, off the top of my | :16:07. | :16:17. | |
:16:17. | :16:25. | ||
Robert Mugabe, Teodoro Obiang, Biya, is this company you apparat ticket? | :16:25. | :16:35. | |
:16:35. | :16:36. | ||
I keep the company of elected leaders. -- you are proud to keep. | :16:36. | :16:46. | |
:16:46. | :16:53. | ||
More importantly, you should ask me, of leaders? Is it programmes? You | :16:53. | :17:03. | |
:17:03. | :17:04. | ||
issue that has crippled Africa has been which way to go, which formula | :17:04. | :17:14. | |
:17:14. | :17:17. | ||
not who, but what. Late in 2012 I took HARDtalk on the road to | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
Equatorial Guinea. This tiny West African nation has vast oil wealth, | :17:22. | :17:28. | |
during the long rule of Teodoro Obiang, it has been dubbed one of | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
the most corrupt and unequal nations on earth. There is a very | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
state the state and the family. You are the | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
President. We are talking about your son, who is now the vice- | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
president. We are talking about a government that includes your other | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
son, Minister of Energy, we are talking about a government that | :17:51. | :17:58. | |
includes your brother, Minister of Defence. It looks as though you run | :17:58. | :18:08. | |
:18:08. | :18:38. | ||
2012 provided a timely reminder that political change can come to | :18:38. | :18:43. | |
even the most repressive and entrenched regimes. Burma has been | :18:43. | :18:51. | |
part of five decades, until last year. The country has embarked on a | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
process of political reform that has seen Aung San Suu Kyi entered | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
Parliament in the run-up to elections in 2015. Supervising the | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
currend current president Thein Sein, who | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
gave an exclusive interview to HARDtalk. Are you prepared to say | :19:10. | :19:17. | |
that you, personally, believe it is not least to allow Aung San Suu Kyi | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
the possibility of becoming president if she is elected by the | :19:22. | :19:32. | |
:19:32. | :19:47. | ||
You did choose to praise Aung San Suu Kyi at the United Nations and | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
other Torksey have given in America. You praised her efforts for | :19:53. | :20:03. | |
:20:03. | :20:09. | ||
make a good leader of your country? Would you work with her if she was | :20:09. | :20:19. | |
:20:19. | :20:35. | ||
Many of the best feel good moments of 2012 were generated here in | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
London by the Olympic Games. The cynics were silenced as London put | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
on a fabulous show and athletes from all over the world excelled | :20:44. | :20:50. | |
without the help of illegal drugs. On HARDtalk we got a rare insight | :20:50. | :20:57. | |
into the pressure and pain to be found in sp found in spThorpe, gold- | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
medallist and Australia's greatest ever Olympian, looked back on a | :21:02. | :21:10. | |
career blighted by depression. would have dealt with depression, I | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
believe it is something you're born with. I would have had to deal with | :21:14. | :21:20. | |
it regardless of doing all these things in sport. I look at the | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
think think there is an elevated level | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
compared to the rest of the population. That is going to | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
surprise a surprise a ople. When you look at athletes, the last thing | :21:32. | :21:38. | |
they appear to be his final report. I completely agree. It is seeing | :21:38. | :21:46. | |
that performance, people see a tiny sliver of what an athlete do. They | :21:46. | :21:53. | |
do not look so vulnerable, it is the same before a race, I walk out | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
with all the confidence in the world. It i world. It i It is a mask. | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
You put the mask on to protect something that you think is ideal | :22:06. | :22:12. | |
for that situation. We all do it. If someone is going for a job | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
interview, you show the best side of yourself. You do not tell them | :22:17. | :22:23. | |
you are going to be looking at Facebook all day. In sport, it is | :22:23. | :22:29. | |
part of the show. Before we close, I want to go back to the beginning | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
of 2012. An encounter that was not just stimulating for the mind, but | :22:34. | :22:40. | |
for the taste buds as well. I went to Copenhagen. This restaurant has | :22:40. | :22:46. | |
been hailed as the best in the world. Rene Redzepi has pioneered a | :22:46. | :22:53. | |
cuisine based on locally foraged for food. Including ants, seaweed | :22:53. | :23:03. | |
:23:03. | :23:05. | ||
and moss. He calls it the science push not only urine innovative | :23:05. | :23:15. | |
:23:15. | :23:16. | ||
diners into new areas? It can be pushed into wherever the | :23:16. | :23:26. | |
:23:26. | :23:28. | ||
deliciousness his. You say that, plate of live ants, some people are | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
going to say, I am not going to eat that. They will for a little while. | :23:34. | :23:41. | |
When we opened seven years ago, when we started serving Moss, it | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
could have been crocodile. Some strange animal. It was so strange | :23:46. | :23:55. | |
for people. Just the fact to serve a wild grass. People were of | :23:55. | :24:02. | |
getting to it originally. These things do not take long. Putting an | :24:02. | :24:07. | |
ant in your mouth is no different to shrink. It is not. It is a | :24:07. | :24:16. | |
cultural thing. -- shrimp. Hard... In 2012 gave me and I hope you | :24:16. | :24:23. | |
plenty to chew on. We will be back in 2013 for more challenging | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
interviews from right around the world. Until then, have a very | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
happy New Year. I will leave you with pictures from a recent | :24:31. | :24:41. |