Education
Sebastian was educated at, a fee-paying independent school in Central London. He holds a Bachelor Honours degree in Modern Languages from New College, Oxford University, and speaks both German and Russian. He has a Diploma in Journalism Studies from Cardiff University, graduating in 1974.
Career
He is the moderator of Conflict Zone and The New Arab Debates, broadcast on Deutsche Welle. He previously worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, where he hosted The Doha Debates and was the first presenter of HARDtalk. He also presented Bloomberg television"s The Outsider, an India-focused debating programme.
Sebastian began his journalism career at Reuters in 1974, moving to the British Broadcasting Corporation as foreign correspondent in Warsaw in 1979.
He became British Broadcasting Corporation"s Europe correspondent in 1982, for Moscow in 1984 (until his expulsion from the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in 1985) and then for Washington from 1986 to 1989. Sebastian has worked for The Mail on Sunday, and has contributed to The Sunday Times.
Memorable Hard Talk interviews with world leaders included United States Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. He now hosts Conflict Zone, a one-on-one interview show on Deutsche Welle"s international English-language channel.
Sebastian is a frequent moderator of major conferences, seminars and forums across the globe.
He was the Chairman of The Doha Debates, a Qatar Foundation programme that was broadcast monthly on British Broadcasting Corporation World News where it was the highest rated weekend programme. The Debates were founded by Sebastian in 2004 and their fifth series began in September 2008. Following the political and social unrest in Egypt and Tunisia in early 2011, Tim Sebastian founded The New Arab Debates, which have been held in Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan and were broadcast on Deutsche Welle English as well as regional television channels.
The debates are also held in Arabic and hosted by Egyptian television presenter Mai El Sherbiny.