Translator: Elia Gasparolo Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
I was in Baghdad in 2003,
the city was falling after days of war.
I had gone up with a unit from the US Army,
Baghdad airport was taken,
there were days of shootings, bombings and deaths.
The lootings started, people killing among each other
for a bag of food.
I recall dozens of kids entering barefeet where we were
and they started smashing the windows
of one of the houses of Saddam Hussein's officers.
I remember having told a soldier:
"How will you stop this?"
I was helping a kid on the floor,
he was all covered in blood
and at that moment I had a glimpse of what was coming:
years of struggles for power,
divisions and thousand problems for Iraqi citizens
but it also gave way to the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq.
I lived to tell the tale.
I wanted to be a journalist since I was 17,
I wanted to be in the Balkans at that time,
in Afghanistan, in Iraq,
in different parts of the world that were at war.
At first my family thought I was totally crazy,
specially since I come from a family of artists, actors, film directors
and it would have been much more common being an actress
than getting up on Saturday mornings to study Arabic.
But they supported me strongly and I studied Political Sciences,
I got a Master's Degree in Resolution of Armed Conflicts
and began travelling around the world.
At present, I'm a journalist, some say a war correspondant.
I don't consider myself a war correspondant,
I thinks it's a little arrogant and if I have to say correspondant
I'd rather say a peace correspondant
because after witnessing the horror, the deaths
and all that is left behind war I feel I have the responsability
to do all I can to prevent it.
(Applause)
Now, I work for a news network called Al Jazeera International,
I mainly cover Latin America.
A network that was also to be closed
in many Middle East countries due to the kind of reports done.
People ask me if it's a problem to be a woman in this job.
And the truth is that I think it's like in all places;
there were very complicated moments
and in others it was great help
and there were many people who wanted to help me.
I try to think positively, in the things I did well,
for example in zones covered by the army, armed factions,
they always wanted to take me there, in helicopters, military operations,
there I went to cover the news at that moment.
Being there, in the communities, was really helpful,
like the ones taken by the Taliban or insurgents,
I wasn't a menace and the women opened the door of their houses,
told me their stories,
their daughters' and their sons' problems,
I believe those were the good things of being a woman there.
But I also had complicated situations in Afghanistan,
like in the south of the country, in Kandahar.
We had gone there to do a report
about the increase of opium
since the U.S. attack at that moment.
And I remember there was a warlord in that area,
who didn't want to talk to me,
since I was a woman.
I was sent to the back, got a translator and a cameraman to the front
and yelled the questions so he talked to me.
While I was at the back they threw me oranges, stones, everything.
I ducked and kept working.
I wasn't there to teach feminism lessons,
I was there to investigate the reasons of the increase of opium
in Afghanistan when that wasn't supposed to happen.
I decided to cover conflicts, wars,
I decided to go to areas that, generally, are abandoned
because I wanted to witness history.
I wanted to generate empathy,
humanize conflict,
to make visible all the things that happen in a war.
And also, at a certain moment,
I wanted to transmit a bit of what was happening there.
As I said, I wanted to live the moment.
And maybe it started as an adventure but then it wasn't.
It was a commitment.
Many times people ask me how do I get home
after living terrible situations,
after witnessing abjection, it's difficult to get home
and keeping everyday life.
I try to see everything through a lens,
that makes my life easier.
I see everything through a TV camera as we were filming,
I try not to get affected, to be professional, impartial,
but it's not easy; sometimes it's very hard for me.
It's very hard, for example, being in Haiti
after an earthquake that killed 250,000 people
and a desperate mother comes
with a naked and malnourished baby saying,
"Please take him, save him."
It's hard when I'm present at a suicide attack
and see the wreckage.
It's hard when I was in Afghanistan
a bombing from the international forces
ended up killing dozens of civilians instead of killing the Taliban.
Despite I'm always trying to be impartial
I believe there are stories that have to be reported,
that demand us to speak on behalf of those who can't,
to challenge power, wherever they are.
(Applause)
Horrors not only happen far away, in Asia or Africa.
They are also here, in Latin America;
I was doing a research in Mexico about missing people.
There were thousands of murders, abductions
with the complicty of State forces and drug dealers.
I accompanied families for many days in Guerrero mountains,
looking for their relatives without success.
We found endless piles of bones everywhere we looked,
but none belonged to them.
Recently, I was also in Venezuela, where, regardless of ideologies,
the State arrests students,
it accuses them of rebellion and betrayal in military courts.
In Colombia, after signing peace,
over 80 activists, human rights advocates, have been killed.
After years of fighting drug dealing,
according to the United Nations, there is more coca than ever before.
And those are the types of stories I like telling.
And nowadays, when press and journalism, are so questioned,
there are people risking their lives everyday to inform.
They don't want to be stars neither the story.
They are there to show what's going on in different parts of the world.
It's not easy when I get called at night
and I'm told I have to go somewhere.
I have a family, small children.
And making the decision to leave is tough.
Though, I still do it because I still believe.
I still believe we have to be there.
I'm a witness of history.
And I have to be sure the story is told.
(Applause)
Our mission is not to tell you what you want to hear.
We are there for you to care.
Because if you care, certain things can be changed.
Last year I was in Haiti.
A hurricane had devastated the south,
in a context of poverty levels of 70-80 percent,
where kids currently eat mud cookies.
We reached an area with a soccer field
and people had nothing to eat or drink for 4 or 5 days.
There was a terrible cholera outbreak
and people feared drinking from rivers.
They were aching for help.
And it didn't arrive.
They started to grow angry.
Soldiers kept safety but did not help.
All of a sudden, a helicopter arrived.
I was with someone doing humanitarian help,
a doctor who tells me:
"Toothbrushes and paste are coming, what about food?"
I was outraged and started twitting.
I obviously started that coverage.
I started to report what was going on.
I was contacted by the UN.
We managed to get water, food,
and many other necessary supplies.
(Applause)
I'm sometimes asked if we are afraid.
Sometimes I really am.
During an operation in Iraq
we got in with the US Army.
It was 2003, and it was an invasion to a city seized by insurgents.
I was filming everything
when two armed men dressed in black
started to shoot at me.
At first I thought about running.
I ran away, it did my best to escape.
I wondered why I was being shot.
I'm a journalist, though obviously I was with the invader army.
They thought I was with them.
I was mainly shocked when I saw a tank and soldiers.
They were killed. The house totally collapsed.
Soldiers came soon afterwards, and told me:
"Show us the video to see what we did."
All that could be seen were my feet.
Nothing else.
So, sure, sometimes I'm really scared.
But my worst fear about the stories,
the ones I witness, remain untold.
That certain types of situations are not informed.
Not only in Latin America, but all around.
I fear the most not being able to transmit my passion to my children
(Applause)
Today there are so many fake news,
so much manipulation.
We have to be out there more than ever.
We have to gain credibility
and be there, questioning, interrogating,
reporting, more than ever.
Finally, I want to tell you I believe in the journalism
that enlightens, exposes, fights against hate,
standing for values, bringing light.
This was written in The Washington Post,
a US journal in a very particular time:
Journalism bringing light,
because Democracy Dies in Darkness.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)