Upon her return to the United Kingdom in 1997, she joined the BBC as a freelance journalist, presenting various programmes on BBC World News such as The World Today and Asia Today, as well as reporting for general news bulletins, until 2004. During her time in the country, she presented BBC Two's "Open Minds" arts and culture series in 1999, as well as Channel 4 television's miscarriage of justice series "Clear My Name" in 1998. Between 2000 and 2003, she also wrote features for The Times newspaper, and was a reporter on several longer foreign features for the BBC series 'Assignment' and BBC Radio 5 Live's "5 Live Report".