"That has been hard, and that’s given me pause.”
Mishal Husain said she has been left “shaken” by her experience of racism in the UK, explaining that it has been more pronounced over the past year than at any other time in her career.
The BBC presenter stated that the summer riots had made her question her beliefs about British tolerance.
Mishal said: “This year I think I have felt racism in a way that I probably haven’t at any point in my career before and that’s in this country.
“That has been hard, and that’s given me pause.”
Her comments came after she accepted the British Journalism Review’s Charles Wheeler award.
The prize is awarded for outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism and previous winners have included Jeremy Paxman, Jon Snow and Christiane Amanpour.
Mishal previously said that Britain was “probably the only country in Europe” where it was possible to achieve her level of success in broadcasting with “a very obviously Muslim name”.
In 2018, she said that “with a name like mine, my career would only have been possible in Britain”.
Reflecting on this, Mishal said: “I kind of always felt that the UK was way ahead of so many other countries on that and I don’t feel as sure of that today, especially after this summer, than I have done in the past.”
In a Q&A session at the ceremony, Mishal Husain discussed her experience of racism and said “you do need to toughen up” and “accept what goes with the territory to some extent”.
However, she admitted that there have been times where she has felt “shaken”.
She added: “I’ve been able to pull myself back together, but I think there’s a hard climate, personally, around.”
Mishal began presenting BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in 2013 having worked across the globe as a presenter on BBC World News.
In 2024, she has faced complaints while reporting on the Middle East.
The BBC defended her in the summer after she was accused by an Israeli government spokesperson live on air of warranting a “pro-Palestinian reporter of the year award”.
A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster rejected his allegations, saying she “was asking legitimate and important questions in a professional, fair and courteous manner”.
After complaints concerning Mishal Husain’s interview with an Iranian professor who called Israel a “genocidal regime”, the BBC said it was “a live interview and he was challenged during the course of the interview, and the Israeli position was reflected”.
The corporation added: “However, we accept we should have continued to challenge his language throughout the interview.”
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