Ben Hunte Q&A

Why did you get into journalism in the frst place?

I was a YouTuber and I wanted to do something that made my voice more legitimate. I enjoyed that I was able to expose things, champion causes, and stand up for human rights. But I felt like people weren’t taking me very seriously.

The vibe was always to do something within LGBTQ+ or human rights journalism and I just wanted to continue that on YouTube, but for a bigger audience. So, I decided to start looking at options for getting into journalism.

What do you most hope to achieve in your career?

I think I’ve achieved it to be honest. I have hit the peak of what I set out to do. It’s quite weird to say but I challenge governments, I’ve held people to account, I’ve made people feel good about their sexualities and their gender identities, and I’ve travelled the world. I left the BBC because I wanted to expose more and investigate more, and Vice gave me the opportunity to do that.

Can you talk about the negatives of being a journalist?

I’ve defnitely been caught off guard by how toxic and scary, and at times, unrewarding journalism can be. Within the human rights space, I’ve spoken to other journalists who agree that there are certain things that we weren’t prepared for. There’s a lot of jealousy within journalism. Journalism is incredibly competitive and there are only a few entry routes into certain newsrooms every year and it means some of the people who you start with (who are your closest friends), almost become your enemies – because you all want the same opportunities.

It can be quite a learning experience, because you want to speak to people about how tired you are, how stressed you are, how scared you are, but you have to do it with the knowledge that you got an opportunity that other people wanted, and that can be very diffcult. All these years later, I know that a lot of my friends in journalism do fnd it quite lonely. It can be challenging because you’re expected to be really grateful for very diffcult, lowpaid, and challenging shifts. Sometimes it’s diffcult to be grateful because you can’t pay your rent and you can’t afford lunch, and you’ve pulled an all-nighter working for a newsroom where people don’t even remember your name.

“Exclusive: this terrible thing has happened,” and someone will respond to me saying: “Hi! I just saw you in CostCo!” I think: ‘What!?’

Have you ever experienced racism, microaggressions or homophobia in your career?

All of the above! During my frst few months as a journalist, I interned for a lot of newsrooms and in that time I probably closed my eyes to a lot more negativity than I should have done. I would hope that if I went back into those situations now, I’d be able to call it out.

I do think there’s been a change in certain UK newsrooms – or I hope that there has been – but I’ve encountered homophobia, racism, and ageism. I was told that I wasn’t old enough to be a reporter; to be a correspondent; to be on BBC News at Ten Classism is an issue too. They told me I didn’t sound good enough to be on the Radio 4 Today programme, and I’d get emails from people telling me they didn’t like my accent.

What is the funniest (or rudest) piece of feedback you’ve had on your work?

When people slide into my DMs and tell me I’m sexy – I fnd it funny because usually it’s around the most inappropriate, deep, and dark stories. I also fnd it funny when people see me out and about and then message me, or take a sly photo of me. There have been occasions when people have done it and I’ve just released a story and I’ll go on Twitter like

One thing that I will say is that I’ve not changed myself when it comes to my principles since becoming a correspondent. I’ve worked with incredible people who have helped me to stay true to myself, which is amazing. I’m so grateful to my mentors for supporting me in that, because I know that some people don’t have the same opportunities that I do - to investigate what they want to, or travel to the countries that they want to, or to hold governments to account in the way that I have.

If you were back at City, what would you do differently?

I would turn up to lectures. I probably had the worst attendance on record and looking back now I feel like I missed out on the opportunity to network more with the people on the course, and get advice from lecturers.