In tonight’s special report Somali reporter Jamal Osman has been into the region in an
exclusive meeting with the Islamists of Al-Shabab, watch.
I think the main reason I wanted to become a journalist was what I had experienced in
my childhood which was violence, injustice, abuses and I thought what I could do to help
myself as well as my people and I thought journalism was the best option.
Channel Four discovered me at the end of Year Two at Kingston University because I did a
number of histories about East Africa and I thought here come an opportunity and I said
to the producer if I come with you, you’re more likely to do a better story than just
you guys going there because I am a local, I know the region quite well and I can do
a good job.
That was the beginning and the rest was history.
I’m doing a film about Somali Islamists who control most of Somalia.
I’m here to talk to Al-Shabab, to find out what they think about the British Government’s
big Somalia conference.
The bosses are going to view it later in the day so we have to finish the first draft of
it and the film will go out tomorrow so we are up against it.
I think I had a tough childhood, I happen to be a Somali someone who happened to be
a child during the civil war.
Seeing killings every day was part of life.
When I left school I think I was about 10 or 11 and that was it, there was no education,
no public services, no law and order and I spent that many years just doing all sorts
of jobs to survive, to feed the family.
It made me a stronger person, it made me more determined to achieve success so I decided
to just head somewhere safe, somewhere where I might be able to develop and have a better
life.
So in 1999 I came to this country as an asylum seeker.
I mean when I came here to the UK I was 20 years old and I found a warehouse job and
then I worked in a laundry as a laundry assistant.
After two years I got married, had two kids and then in 2005 I thought doing labour work
is not good enough for me, I could do better things for myself and for humanity if you
like so I went back to education to study journalism at Kingston University.
Brian Cathcart: He had a lot to learn and he had quite a lot to prove both to himself
and to the rest of us but he really knuckled down.
That is the thing about Jamal, he’s determined, when he wants something he’s going to get
it and there was no stopping him.
I think at the beginning most lecturers and fellow students thought that I was too optimistic,
all the odds were against me, English it’s not my first language and they thought he’s
not probably gonna make it but because of my experience I was determined to achieve
success and I think Brian straight away recognised my needs.
He gave me his telephone number for a start and he said you can phone me whenever you
want.
Brian Cathcart: We teach but the students really have to make the effort and Jamal made
the effort, big time.
I was always on the look out for news stories, I wanted to practice journalism and he was
there to advise me.
I became the news editor of the River Newspaper that the students newspaper which students
in Year Three produce.
Jamal was a shoo-in for the job as news editor, he was a natural having shone as a student,
by then he was really a stand out performer at news writing and it’s an enormous tribute
to his persistence.
He showed that he could do this and then Channel 4 news went to him to get him to do it for
them
I have been offered other jobs like the BBC, Al Jazeera and even The Guardian and I have
all declined to take because I, I prefer working here.
I work very hard for it to be honest and I, I am still working very hard, I never let
my guard down.
Yes I have been lucky looking back and I think and hopefully it will continue.
Brian Cathcart: I think that of all the stories of all the people who come to this country
with nothing, this is one of the most inspiring I have ever come across.
It’s a measure of personal talent, there’s no doubt about that, but also of persistence,
of endeavour, of imagination, just phenomenal.
John Snow: We are delighted to say that Jamal Osman, whose report from Somalia you saw a
few moments ago was honoured last night by the Royal Television Society for his report
on the Somali Olympic team, training on the front line of the country’s civil war.