Today SBS announced that Dateline will have two presenters next year. Yalda Hakim and Mark Davis will host the program, replacing veteran broadcaster George Negus. He is moving to Network TEN.
Hakim and Davis currently work as reporters on Dateline.
Dateline’s Executive Producer Peter Charley said each will continue to work as reporters. One will present the program while the other is on assignment.
Charley said, “The idea of putting working Video Journalists in the studio to host the program returns Dateline to the essence of what has made it such a distinctive program – Video Journalism lies at the heart of what we do.”
“Yalda and Mark represent the cutting edge of Video Journalism, the core of Dateline’s unique approach to story-telling.”
27 year old Yalda Hakim speaks five languages. She is acknowledged as a highly talented reporter. Last year she won the United Nations Media Peace Prize for Best Australian Television News coverage. She has filed stories globally, including from Afghanistan, Norway and India. Born in Afghanistan she fled Kabul with her family when Russia invaded. Hakim has been reporting for Dateline for the past two years.
Mark Davis has hosted Dateline before. He is a pioneer of Video Journalism and one of Australia’s most respected journalists and presenters. The high standards of his work have become the benchmark for Dateline. He won five Walkley awards, including the prestigious Gold Walkley for Blood Money. Most recently Davis reported on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Dutch politician Gert Wilders.
Dateline first aired in 1980 on SBS Radio, 3EA (Ethnic Australia) in Melbourne. In 1984 it was picked up by SBS television.
george was good. sad to see him go tho. yalda brilliant replacement. mark – yes. sbs making some right decisions at last. should have more shows like dateline.
Great! In my opinion Negus was utter crap and anyone will be a big imporvement, Negus should stick to the 7pm report. That is his calibre of journalism. I have no idea why he is so highly regarded in Australian journalism. I am Looking forward to having Davis back in the chair, someone who can actually conduct a decent interview and doesn’t resort to tired cliches every 10 seconds. My highlight of lame Negus moments was the pointless and boring interview he conducted with Ghaddafi which he finished off by giving Ghaddafi a gift of his a book he wrote about his views on Islam.