Ismir Hero
Ismir Hero
INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST LEADER
More than three decades across live television, production operations, transformation and team development
Connecting editorial vision with production reality
THE WHOLE PICTURE
Television works best when editorial, creative, technical and operational teams move as one
Judgement
Understanding the story, the audience and what the moment requires
Delivery
Turning complex plans into clear, confident live television
Leadership
Creating the conditions in which specialists can do their best work
Great television is made together.
PROFILE
Who I am
My career has taken me from a newsroom under siege in Sarajevo to national broadcasting in the Netherlands, independent productions across countries and cultures, and eventually a global newsroom in Doha. I started young and learned responsibility early. As the scale of the work grew, so did my understanding of what it takes to make television that is clear, compelling and worth watching.
I developed in a European newsroom culture where the Director was part of Editorial, not simply the final technical link in the production chain. It meant understanding the story, questioning assumptions and helping shape how words, pictures, graphics and sound came together, while also leading the creative and technical disciplines responsible for bringing it to air.
That experience shaped an instinct I have carried throughout my career: editorial vision and production reality should never be separate conversations.
That also explains how I work with people. I do not believe leadership is about knowing more than every specialist in the room. It is about understanding what they bring, respecting their expertise and creating the clarity and trust that allow different disciplines to work towards the same goal.
I listen, I ask questions, I challenge when necessary and, when situations become complex, I try to make them clearer.
Coaching and mentoring have always been a natural part of that. I enjoy helping talented people develop their skills, trust their own judgement and grow into greater responsibility.
Some of the most rewarding moments in my career have not happened on air, but in seeing someone become better and more confident at what they do. And while people grew, the industry around me kept changing too.
Broadcasting has changed enormously since I first entered a television studio. Linear television became multiplatform storytelling. Newsrooms, studios and production systems became increasingly connected.
Technology transformed what was possible and how we worked. I have embraced those changes and helped teams navigate them, but without losing sight of what matters underneath them: editorial clarity, meaningful storytelling, the audience, good judgement and trust between people.
A strong editorial idea only matters if you know how to make it real.
EXPERIENCE
Where experience becomes judgement
Local & National
1989 - 1998
I entered broadcasting at 15, first in front of the camera and soon behind it, moving into live news production and directing while I was still very young. In 1992, our lives and television changed overnight.
During the Siege of Sarajevo, producing the news meant making editorial and operational decisions under extraordinary pressure, often with limited resources and no room for hesitation.
Those years taught me lessons that have stayed with me ever since: understand what matters, remain calm when circumstances are anything but calm, trust the people around you and take responsibility for the decisions you make.
Leaving Sarajevo during the war meant starting again in the Netherlands. I had to learn a new country, a new language and a different broadcasting culture while finding my way back into television. Within a few years, that new beginning led to Dutch national broadcasting and the next stage of my career.
National & International
1998 - 2016
I joined NOS in 1998, entering a newsroom culture in which editorial judgement, visual storytelling and production leadership were closely connected. From there, my work expanded across public and commercial broadcasting, including RTL Nieuws and SBS, and through many independent productions in the Netherlands and internationally.
Over those years I moved between live news, current affairs, sport, entertainment and major events, while increasingly taking responsibility for teams, workflows and change.
At RTL Nieuws, I led the directing team and played a central role in a major editorial and visual transformation, bringing editorial, creative and technical disciplines together around a shared ambition for the programme.
Independent work broadened that experience further. Different broadcasters, formats, production cultures and international projects required me to enter new environments quickly, understand how they operated and bring the right people together to deliver. Productions in the Netherlands and abroad, including major international productions in Los Angeles, expanded both the scale and range of my work.
Leadership became as much about developing people as it was about delivering programmes. Coaching directors, producers and production teams became a natural part of my work.
I learned that strong leadership is not about having every answer yourself, but about recognising expertise, asking the right questions and creating the confidence and clarity in which people can do their best work.
International & Global
From 2016
In 2016, I was invited back to Sarajevo from the Netherlands for a broadcast project, beginning a new professional chapter in the city where my career had started.
What began as a specific assignment developed into Sarajevo becoming my base for international production, working with broadcasters and production teams from different countries across news, documentaries and complex location projects. The work brought together years of editorial experience, production leadership and an understanding of what it takes to turn ambitious ideas into workable productions on the ground.
Working across countries and cultures required more than production expertise. Every project meant understanding a different editorial ambition, building the right local team and creating the conditions in which journalists, directors, producers and crews could concentrate on telling the story. At times I was producing, at others consulting, directing or solving problems behind the scenes, but the role was often the same at its core: connecting people, ideas and production reality.
In 2024, I joined Al Jazeera English in Doha as Senior Media Director. Moving into a global newsroom brought another scale and rhythm to the work: live news around the clock, breaking coverage, international teams and stories unfolding across the world. It also meant bringing my experience into a very different broadcast culture and learning from that environment in return.
Across these years, the settings and responsibilities have continued to change, but the principles have not. Good judgement, clarity under pressure, respect for specialist expertise and trust between people remain at the heart of how I work, whether on location with a small international team or inside a global newsroom reaching audiences around the world.
Experience teaches you what changes. And what never should.
SELECTED WORK
Where judgement became delivery
LIVE NEWS
UNDER SIEGE
Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina · Sarajevo · 1992 - 1994
Directed national television news during the Siege of Sarajevo, where editorial judgement and production responsibility could never be separated. With limited resources, disrupted infrastructure and events changing by the minute, every decision had to balance accuracy, urgency and the responsibility of broadcasting to a city at war.
The work demanded more than getting a bulletin on air. It meant deciding what mattered, how much the pictures could say for themselves, when to change course and how to keep editorial and technical teams moving together under extreme pressure.
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION ON LOCATION
Independent Executive Production · The Balkans · 2017–2024
Led international productions across the Balkans for news, documentary and factual teams, combining editorial understanding with the practical responsibility of making complex shoots possible on the ground.
The role stretched from story development and research to access, locations, crews, logistics and production decisions in the field. It required understanding what an international editorial team was trying to achieve, then translating that ambition into a production that could actually be delivered.
EDITORIAL & VISUAL TRANSFORMATION
RTL Nieuws & Netwerk · Hilversum · 2001–2004
Led and contributed to major editorial and visual transformation projects across Dutch television, including the rebrand of RTL Nieuws and the redesign of Netwerk. The work connected editorial ambition with directing, studio design, graphics, production workflow and the practical realities of daily television.
At RTL Nieuws, the transformation involved more than 120 people across editorial, production, design and technical teams. Netwerk offered a different challenge: reshaping the visual and production language of a current affairs programme while preserving its editorial identity. In both cases, the objective was the same: turn a strong editorial idea into television that could be delivered consistently.
EDITORIAL & VISUAL TRANSFORMATION
RTL Nieuws & Netwerk · Hilversum · 2001–2004
Led and contributed to major editorial and visual transformation projects across Dutch television, including the rebrand of RTL Nieuws and the redesign of Netwerk. The work connected editorial ambition with directing, studio design, graphics, production workflow and the practical realities of daily television.
At RTL Nieuws, the transformation involved more than 120 people across editorial, production, design and technical teams. Netwerk offered a different challenge: reshaping the visual and production language of a current affairs programme while preserving its editorial identity. In both cases, the objective was the same: turn a strong editorial idea into television that could be delivered consistently.
GLOBAL NEWSROOM
UNDER PRESSURE
Al Jazeera English · Doha · 2024–2026
Worked in a global newsroom where live news, breaking coverage and continuous delivery demanded both editorial judgement and operational precision. As Senior Media Director, the role required making fast decisions while keeping the programme clear, coherent and technically controlled.
The strongest moments often came from knowing when not to overproduce. In fast-moving coverage, the job was to recognise what the pictures were already saying, when to let them breathe and how to keep editorial and technical teams aligned as the story changed in real time.
