Award-winning journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed presents the BBC’s flagship arts programme Front Row on Radio 4 and Newswatch on BBC1. Her acclaimed BBC4 series Art of Persia was the first major Western documentary series to be filmed in Iran in 40 years. The Broadcasting Press Guild named her Audio Presenter of the Year in 2020, the same year she won a landmark sex discrimination case against the BBC for equal pay.
Samira was previously a news correspondent and news anchor at BBC News, where she covered the OJ Simpson case as LA correspondent and Channel 4 News, where she won Stonewall Broadcast of the Year.
I was really touched to be awarded this honorary degree. Especially as it’s only thanks to the support of my union, the National Union of Journalists, and two outstanding lawyers - barrister Claire Darwin and solicitor Caroline Underhill - that I was able to bring and win my successful sex discrimination case against the BBC for equal pay.