This article is part of a series of interviews with people who work in the media to provide the news and views that shape our perceptions of world affairs. Brian George, News Anchor from NTV Kenya, spoke to UN Today about his life and career in media.

What is your professional background?

So interestingly, I never studied media as my first major. I did Bachelor of Tourism Management at Moi University between 2015-2019. Since it wasn’t the course I wanted, I’d learn the process of editing videos, scripting, reporting, animation and digital skills after my class work. I started blogging and vlogging and that’s how I ended up starting a YouTube channel. One time in early 2019 when I was on industrial attachment (internship) as a waiter, I was told that Standard Media Academy was hiring its third cohort of young journalists to join its journalism trainee program. I applied and submitted my YouTube videos and links to my blogs. I was luckily shortlisted among over 2,000 applicants for just 12 places. 

We ended up doing seven interviews, and with each round I felt more anxious. On 25 July 2019 I was called in and told I made it.

I was trained in all aspects of media, communication and journalism in six months while on a paid internship at Standard Media Group. After it was confirmed in May 2020, I was first a radio producer for Standard’s Vybez Radio, and did presenting for a while before Ellen Wanjiru, the former Managing Editor at KTN, called me for a screentest on TV. A news anchor had left and the gap needed to be filled. On 7 December 2020, I made my debut on air as a news anchor on KTN and that’s how I started.

I was at KTN for three years before NTV called me to join them in August 2022.  In this role, I told stories and reported from 19 countries globally. I also moderated events in Shanghai China, Johanessburg and Cape town South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Dubai UAE, Cairo Egypt, Kinshasa DRC and Accra Ghana.

I am currently pursuing Masters in Digital Journalism in Aga Khan University Graduate School of Journalism.

What’s the best interview you’ve ever done?

So I interviewed former women prisoners in my country, when I was telling the story of how hard it is for them to assimilate back into the community and get basic things like identification cards, to getting jobs, starting a business and worst of all living in the prison of people’s judgement. This story woke me up to the reality of a flawed correctional services system. This story got me to appreciate the need to truly liberate someone from their past mistakes and embrace them back in the society.

In 2022 I also went into Kenya’s largest informal settlement Kibera and told the story of the reality of austerity measures and how inflation is eating into people’s quality of life, while widening the inequality gap in the country. There was a lady who was living off less than $50 a month and she had a huge family to feed. What was more stressing was how she lost a child due to improper health system that wasn’t able to afford emergency health care for the child. It opened up my eyes to the larger flaw in austerity measures a state takes.

Lastly, I was in a young innovator’s house. He made biometric school sign in systems from electronic wastes. He wanted to use it to distribute to schools and solve the perennial truancy issues in schools. For me it was how he was doing so much with very little, while solving an environmental problem.

I have told many stories, interviewed presidents, business leaders, celebrities but what really stands out for me in story telling is communicating the impact of their decisions on the low and humble.

Is there an interview you’d like to do but haven’t been able to yet?

I’d love to tell stories from Nigeria and although I’ve not been there, I feel that despite their challenges, they have many great stories. 

I’d love to sit with Wizkid one day and understand his creative process as an artist and how his music business work.

As a Manchester United fan, Dr. Marcus Rashford inspires me and I’d love to know more about his football and charity.

I have interviewed Vusi Thembekwayobut, I wouldn’t mind doing it again. My interviewees are largely fellow Africans, and seeing them at their best proves that African children can dream because these African stars make it look possible.

What is your view on the role of media?

If you communicate factually and truthfully in a balanced way, it gives a different perspective to a story or an agenda that needs attention.

What is your vision of media 10 years from now?

That it will be extremely citizen-driven and digital. We’ll continue to see more news- targeted content that speaks to people’s needs which is told in consumable ways like short video explainers on digital platforms like TikTok.

Brian George producing an interview in Kenya. Credits NTV.

Could you share an interesting work-related anecdote?

The newsroom is a pressure cooker, as I call it. A time of stability can be marred with the chaos of breaking news, protests, a bomb blast or a whole cabinet being fired! It can be an extremely unpredictable environment to work in.

On my debut week as a news anchor, the news broke of the death of a former Kenyan presidential candidate and I needed to break it. Being my third day on air, it was challenging to break it and I needed a lot of info on him to break the news and give viewers perspective.

Luckily in our newsroom, we had what we loosely called an ‘Orbituary Desk.” This pulled together an autobiography, which was about ten minutes long. This was enough time for me to gather as much information about him to announce and get messages of condolences from twitter handles of his peers and various dignitaries online.