With his magnetic personality and easy charm, Riz Khan is the epitome of a successful broadcast journalist. In his illustrious 20-year career — first at the BBC, then CNN and now Al Jazeera — the 48-year-old newsman has conducted more than 10,000 interviews. Now with the focus on him, Riz opens up to Elaine Lau about his career, the TV news industry and his creative side.

There are certain qualities that all broadcast journalists who enjoy a measure of success have. This includes being able to speak with authority, to quickly and easily establish rapport, as well as have an engaging style and a winning personality.

Al Jazeera’s Riz Khan has all these qualities, and he displays them week in, week out on the Arab network’s English news channel, where he engages viewers with his easy charm and charisma on a news show from Monday to Thursday and a weekly show called Riz Khan’s One on One. His pleasant British accent and well-modulated voice has a lulling effect, not in a soporific way but in a way that puts guests on his show at ease and invites them to open up their hearts and speak their minds. He poses his questions firmly, but always with deep respect for the person.

In person, Riz Khan is all this, but also so much more. Riz (his actual name is Rizwan) was in town recently for the second edition of the World Capital Markets Symposium (WCMS), a conference organised by Securities Commission Malaysia at Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur, where he was chief moderator, as he was at last year’s event.

I meet Riz, who is also executive editor at Al Jazeera, at the hotel, after a full first day of the conference. It has undoubtedly been a long day, and he could be forgiven for being a little worn out and weary, but he shows no sign of this whatsoever. He is energetic and wired; alert as an eagle, and ready to tackle the next thing on his agenda — this interview. Indefatigable is the word to describe him.

Riz wraps my hand with both of his and greets me with that winning million-dollar smile. There is a magnetism to his personality, and also a warmth that draws you in. He oozes an aura of dynamism that quickly becomes infectious. I can definitely see why he is so good at what he does.

But what TV viewers don’t get to see is Riz’s comedic side. Out of nowhere he pulls out these magic thumb lights and starts performing tricks. I laugh at his goofiness, and the expression of boyish delight on his face is absolutely priceless.

On a more serious note, I ask Riz about his return to host the WCMS for the second year and his thoughts on the conference’s theme of Transforming Capital Markets: Leadership, Change and Governance.

“The last couple of years have been a stressful time, and not just for the financial markets but also everyday life,” he says. “A lot of the focus has been on these first of all, everything from the World Economic Forum to the WCMS, on what has caused us to be where we are, and then, more positively, on looking forward to what we do next, how we resolve the situation. But there’s such a tendency in this world to be Western-centric … We’re conditioned to think that anything in the West is right and anything outside it is wrong, or questionable. Especially because the power of the US, the American influence through Hollywood and satellite TV, Internet and so on, the tendency is to think that’s the standard we should all follow. What we tend to forget is that the rest of the world has had cultural and civilisational developments that are so sophisticated that took the world so much more forward than anything even happening today in many ways.

“And things are changing again. Asia’s dominance is rising, the West is fearful of it of course — China’s economic power, its hold on US debt and the influence of Chinese products, for instance. But the thing is, that’s the way the world goes — through cycles — and we’re in a cycle now where it’s Asia’s time again. So I’m pleased because coming here, it refreshes my awareness of that. I live in the US and I travel a lot luckily, and whenever I come to Asia it refreshes my appreciation that it’s not the West that’s important; it’s more than that … It’s good to remind myself by travelling to places like Malaysia, to know where the future is. And it’s not just the future; it’s the present.

“The WCMS; it was a great idea to bring leading world thinkers — economic, business and, to some degree, political thinkers — out to this part of the world and have an international debate in this region. That way at least a regional perspective can be put into the international debate.”
He goes on to talk about branding Malaysia, and how the slogan, Malaysia Truly Asia, can be capitalised on even more. “Branding is something I learned the value of once I moved to the US,” says Riz, who grew up in the UK. “Malaysia Truly Asia is a fantastic campaign for the tourism here. It shows the romantic aspect and beauty of the country. But I don’t think it resonates with people who go to Malaysia to do business … That’s one of the things coming here, people do realise it’s a place you can do business in; it’s a place where there’s sophistication in business.”

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As a veteran of the TV news business, Riz is easily one of the most recognised faces of news TV and is undeniably one of the most respected and reputable broadcast journalists in the world today. Over the span of his illustrious 20-year career, first at the BBC, then CNN and now Al Jazeera, the 48-year-old journalist has conducted more than 10,000 interviews with global movers and shakers and newsmakers — everyone from political leaders (he’s arguably interviewed more world leaders than anyone else), religious heads, corporate figures, economists, scientists and academicians to movie stars, filmmakers, visual artists, authors, musicians and designers.

“It’s a real blessing to have that diversity. That is what’s kept me really charged up for this job. I have the daily show from Monday to Thursday called the Riz Khan Show, which is a live, interactive show with people calling in from around the world. I have a weekly show too called Riz Khan’s One on One, and that is where I can sit there and just delve into the background and live history of various people. It’s been an amazing range of people; I just love it so much … And I like the mix — I’ve done everything from covering disasters and earthquakes to soft interviews and music shows and such,” he says.

Riz was part of the team who founded the English channel of the Arab news network Al Jazeera five years ago. “I was approached to help set up the channel … we had no blueprint really. It was just, ‘Can we set up an English language channel?’ I’m not a manager so I said I would not get involved in running the channel, but I said I would be a director and focus on my own show’s creative side,” he says.

What was the appeal of being part of this new channel? “I love creating something from scratch. I’m very right brained, that’s why I remember jokes, I see patterns and hence learn languages quickly. I taught myself the drums and I’m naturally an artist. It’s a blessing — I can’t say I’ve had to work at it. But the thing about it is I have a good sense of what I’m capable of and what I’m not. I like creative stuff. I don’t like management, that’s not my skill, so usually I try to get people who like to do that on my team so we have a good balance. In setting up the channel, what I wanted to do was focus on doing a show that would be high-end, daily, creative, news-based and on current affairs, and with profiles. And that’s how I got involved.

“It has been great doing everything from the start, helping shape and build it … that was really something quite amazing. The guy I recommended to be the managing director, whom they hired, used to be with me at the BBC. We decided we wanted a hub in Asia. We chose KL, and it was just moving away from the typical Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing axis, then we had to have our headquarters in Doha where the channel is based, and then London was a natural for Europe, and Washington DC because it’s the power hub of the US, rather than New York, though we have a team up there. So we ended up with four big broadcast centres, not just bureaus. I opted to move to Washington DC from Atlanta, where I was with CNN — I left in 2001.”

Riz is still based in the US capital today, but travels to the different broadcasting centres and around the world for his interviews.

He continues, “I knew there would never again, in my lifetime, be a conventional broadcast channel that would be launched on this scale. I can’t imagine anyone else who would put all these resources into building a full infrastructure with a couple of thousand people distributed across the world and actually doing proper news. We’re considered by many people to be the way the BBC used to be — a proper international channel. Even though I have a great respect for the BBC and even CNN still, I like the fact that we cover the world from a very southern perspective too. So it’s not just about what’s happening in New York, Paris or London it’s also about what’s happening here.”

Riz’s passion for what he does is undeniable, and you almost can’t imagine him in any other field. Hence, it is surprising to learn that he didn’t start out intending to become a broadcast journalist. In fact, the Yemeni-born Pakistani who grew up in the UK actually wanted to become a doctor.

He reveals, “Since I was six years old, I was fascinated with medicine and the idea of being a doctor. By the time I was eight, I could name all the major bones in my body, and I still can. I had a fascination with the subject. I think it’s amazing how we work as biological machines. We’re so much more sophisticated than almost anything on the planet. Our minds actually work faster than any computer, but we just don’t know how to harness that power sometimes.”

And so, Riz attended the University of Wales and obtained an honours degree in medical physiology, specialising in neurology, and then did a postgraduate course in radio journalism at the University of Portsmouth. He went to work for the BBC, at “what I thought would be a job where I could save some money and go back to medicine”, he says. “It never happened.”

Instead, Riz was selected for the BBC News Trainee Scheme in 1987, and his first proper job after that was as a TV reporter for a show in London’s southeast region. “It was relaunching, and Newsroom Southeast was the name of the show. It was great to be there from the start, again helping set up everything from scratch.

“Then I got involved in setting up BBC World Service TV News in 1991, where I co-anchored the very first show with Pamela Armstrong. When I was headhunted 1½ years later by CNN in 1993, it was the same thing — to help relaunch CNN International as a proper channel, not just as a small operation with a dozen people.”

At CNN, he was the senior anchor for the network’s global news shows and special events, including the historic live coverage of the Hajj, among other things. The event that really stamped his mark in the news business was when his own show, Q&A with Riz Khan, was launched in 1996. That show was the first global interactive news show, where viewers from all over the world could pose questions to the guests on the show live via phone, email, video-mail and fax, along with questions and comments taken from the real-time chatroom that opens half an hour before each show. Guests on the show have included former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, to name a few. Riz also secured the world exclusive with Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf following his coup in October 1999.

Of course, it wasn’t always easy to get political leaders who are at odds with each other to sit down for an interview. “Sometimes, they don’t want to be in the same room together or don’t want to talk to each other,” he says. “Mostly it’s political rather than emotional. And sometimes you get politicians who would not speak in anything but their own language because they feel if they speak in English, it compromises their sovereignty or the sovereignty of their language.”

How do you deal with situations like that, I ask. “You go with the flow,” Riz says, simply. “I remember we had an interview with a Syrian minister once, and it was a live show with no editing and no delay. Ten minutes before the show, his assistant called up to say he wouldn’t come on if there was going to be any Israelis calling. I told him I didn’t know who’d call as it’s a live show, but if an Israeli did call in, he could choose not to speak to that person. He’s a guest on my show, I’m not going to leave him hanging. I’m not there to embarrass him, I’m there to ask him questions and get some information. We waited, and literally two minutes before we were due to go on live, he said okay, he’d do it. So, you go with the flow. There’s no point getting worked up about it. I’m lucky I never get stressed. I’ve never lost my temper in my life. I never get freaked out about stuff — I leave that to the producer.”

Out of all those thousands of interviews, is there a favourite? “It’s hard to choose but there are a few that are memorable,” he says. “Not just the famous ones like Nelson Mandela or Mikhail Gorbachev. The one that sticks in my mind, and I got to know him and became friends with him, has got a mixed reputation for some people but I like him, it’s Uri Geller. I was also fascinated as a kid with paranormal psychology and he’s the guy who bends spoons and forks without touching them, restarts clocks and so on. He’s a very charming man in so many ways, very into publicity but not in a bad way, and I found him very warm and very easy to get on with. I think he really has something. And I apply my scientific background, my controls, and I’ve watched every aspect of it — I know he’s not faking this. I do believe there’s more out there than we know.

“There’s a lot of interesting people and some of them are funny. The Dalai Lama cracks me up. The first time I met him I said, ‘You’re the head of the Buddhist spiritual world. What special powers do you have?’ And he said, ‘I can’t read minds if that’s what you’re thinking.’ That’s quite clever if you think about it. It’s quite witty. Then the third or fourth time I saw him, I said to him, ‘You’re always so happy. Does anything ever make you angry? What annoys you?’ And he said, ‘Stupid questions.’ That was really good,” laughs Riz.

Even after interviewing so many personalities, there are still a few who Riz hasn’t spoken with and would like to. These include former US president George W Bush (“his government didn’t like [Al Jazeera]”), President Barack Obama, Elton John (“I’ve been listening to his music since 1973”) and Phil Collins (“because I want some drum lessons as he’s a left-handed drummer like me”).

Does he ever get the jitters? Not at all, except for one instance. “The only time I’ve been nervous in front of the camera was when we launched BBC World Service TV News in November 1991, and that was because every boss from the BBC was watching the launch. It was the third TV channel the BBC had ever launched since 1922. I thought then that BBC would be the only place I was going to work for the rest of my life — it’s like civil service — and I thought if I screwed this one up I would never have another job. And I couldn’t envision myself anywhere else. I felt my heart pounding in my chest when I delivered those first words for BBC World Service. But beyond that I’ve never been worried, even during my first broadcast with CNN.”

In the more than 20 years that Riz has been in the broadcast news industry, changes have inevitably taken place, and this veteran newsman finds himself grappling with some of them. He plans to write a book to address these changes, he says.

“I’ve given it a lot of thought recently, and a couple of things bother me, where we are today — interviews where people shout and scream, interviewers who interrupt all the time. There’s a place for aggressive interviews but if you think that’s the only way to do it, then it’s not good. People listen for an anchorperson’s or reporter’s tone of voice rather than the content of what they say … Having a particular tone of voice, it’s loaded. Maybe that’s an outdated thing now, I don’t know. I’m going through this whole process of whether I am a dinosaur in this industry. Basically I believe in calm, collected, intelligent conversation. I want to hear what the person has to say. If I’ve invited him onto my show, in a way it’s almost like an Asian thing, he’s my guest, I can’t be rude to him. It doesn’t mean I can’t ask him the right questions and be firm with him. But the tendency is people don’t listen to content anymore, they listen to the tone of voice. It’s a real shame because many channels are going down this avenue of having only this screaming and shouting. You have to have diversity and variety on a channel, you have to have intelligent conversation, you have to have softened and heavy, light and dark — otherwise people just see the same old doom and gloom time after time.

“When I first started, of course it was a very different industry. I was trained in the BBC by old-school journalists. You don’t put adjectives in TV news. Television news in Britain was not allowed to have any editorial commentary, newspapers could, but not the broadcast industry. So I still feel uncomfortable because that’s my training; we were neutral. I remember a copy editor getting a script from a young writer, and he wrote, ‘The long running bloody civil war in Sri Lanka’. And he said, ‘How many civil wars do you know that are not bloody?’ Adjectives were removed from our language when we were trained. Now it’s all changed.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to the industry. I think we’re going to go through a lot of processes now — there’s blogging and citizen journalism, the question of what’s news, what’s valid information, and should there be qualified journalists to filter stuff or should people be educated to filter for themselves. There’s so much in this debate. It’s changed so much with the advent of Twitter and Facebook; there’s almost something new every day. Interesting change in the last quarter of the century, much more than there was in the previous quarter of a century.”
Indeed, there’s much to sift through and pick apart with this topic, but we had not the luxury of time. It will be interesting to watch how the industry evolves in the years to come.

Outside of work, Riz indulges in creative pursuits like playing the drums, (“I just got an electronic kit and it’s fantastic”), painting and drawing, and finds ironing shirts, a chore for most people, a therapeutic activity. Music he loves, anything from rock to jazz and classical music. One of his new favourite artistes is John Mayer.

“I think he’s one of the most talented musicians around. The guy is brilliant. It’s because of him I bought three guitars and I’m just starting to learn. All my life I’ve never wanted to play the guitar, because my brother plays it and it drives me nuts. But because of John Mayer I want to learn, just so I can play some of his riffs and songs,” he says, with unmistakable glee in his voice.

From the way Riz talks about his four-year-old daughter, it’s obvious he dotes on her, a little girl who takes after her daddy. She even has her own mini drum kit and guitar. “She’s a mini me, it’s kind of scary. She’s just as hyper as me,” Riz laughs. “What’s funny is she strums her guitar and makes up words. She has a similar right-brain pattern as me. She can rhyme things pretty easily and she’ll make up words to a song. She’s great fun — she’s got a British sense of humour that I love, but she’s got an American accent. And she likes Marmite, which I’m happy about.”

Riz ends our session with these parting words: “I’ve learned to live in the moment … I’ve discovered that in the last year, that’s what’s really helped me to survive because I’ve learned to live in the moment. I don’t stress about other stuff because I say what’s important is happening right now.” Advice we would all do well to take to heart indeed.

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 827, Oct 11-17, 2010