Final farewell

After more than seven years presenting HARDtalk Tim Sebastian is leaving. He remembers the "good, the bad and the ugly" who have appeared on the programme.

HARDtalk is seven and a half years old.....and I feel as though we've grown up together!.. But it's definitely time to part company.

It's been an enormous privilege to ask leading questions on your behalf and to travel the world trying to get answers.

We've left some bruised political egos in our wake, some important feathers ruffled. But why not?

When we talk about war, disease, and genocide, I think it's worth a few feathers out of place. And hopefully at the end of it all, we shone a little light in some very dark places.

As one US supreme court justice commented last century..."sunlight is a great disinfectant."

But increasingly over the years, I've been struck by the high degree of sophistry and yes...outright dishonesty exhibited by many of the politicians we've interviewed.

Some appear to have attended a school which taught them never to admit a mistake, own up to a fault, or apologize for something that went badly wrong. No wonder the public in many countries is disillusioned by its leaders.

But that's not by any means the whole story of HARDtalk.

We have encountered some extraordinary people who found courage and determination in themselves - at a time when they most needed it.

Look at Gil Loescher - survivor of the devastating attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad, the American marine who stopped the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, and Chris Moon the mine clearance expert who had his leg blown off and promised that he would run the London marathon a year after his terrible accident. Three people - along with many others we interviewed - who refused to be victims, despite almost irresistible pressure.

So we've met the good, the bad, the ugly. The killers, the dictators, and the spinners. Not always a very pretty picture - but then what did you expect?

HARDtalk has survived - and prospered, I think, because we treated everyone the same, regardless of race or political persuasion.

We have become the case for the prosecution - a minutely researched case - and people who came on the programme were obliged to answer for their arguments and their actions.

This is an important part of a democratic society - and yet these days it's the democratic governments that are fighting every bit as hard as the dictatorships to obscure the truth and prevent access to "inconvenient" information. This is a worrying trend. Look no further than Iraq.

I know that my successor Stephen Sackur will do everything he can to wrest the facts from the spinners and dodgers who front up our governments these days. I wish him luck and I hope very much that you - the viewers - will give him your support.

To those who wrote in, demanding a new presenter and an end to the "rudeness and interruptions" - you got your way.

To the others, who did so much to encourage me over so many years, you have my heartfelt thanks.

Tim Sebastian

London

February 28, 2005

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 04:30 GMT,1130 GMT, 1530 GMT, 1930 GMT, 0030 GMT

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 and 23:30