 After five years reporting from places such as Beirut, Uganda and Central America, he read the "Six O'Clock News" for two years, before moving to BBC1's "Breakfast Time" programme.Paxman became a presenter of "Newsnight" in 1989.On 13 May 1997 he interviewed Michael Howard, who had been Home Secretary until 13 days earlier after he had held a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of Her Majesty's Prison Service, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison, John Marriott.