Yvonne Ridley – Journey to Journalism A Tale #07

If I get captured again, people will just

say, throw away the key.

I wanted to become a journalist from the

age of 14 because I realised that the

pen is mightier than the sword and you

can actually make a change in people's lives

through writing about it.

My first job as a journalist was in

1976.

I was working for a weekly newspaper and

I was sent on a minor story, a

woman who lived in deplorable housing conditions and

she had rising damp in her home and

she had been in touch with her local

authority, the council, to get this fixed and

they had ignored her.

Out of desperation, she came to the Stanley

News, as it was called, and I reported

the story and within a week of the

story being published, the council redecorated her flat,

gave her a new kitchen sink, repaired all

the things that she'd asked to do and

this was very minor in the grand scheme

of things but it made me realise, you

know, gosh, I can make a change to

people's lives.

When I was 13, I was asked to

sign a petition in support of Palestinians.

Now at that time, the Akili Laro cruise

ship had been hijacked by Palestinians, the several

airliners had been hijacked by Palestinians and I

said, why would I support these terrorists and

somebody said, well, why do you think they

are doing all these hijackings?

And I went, I don't know and so

I got a history lesson and I was

shocked.

I was really shocked because this is something

that we weren't taught in schools, that a

country in Europe with no connection at all

to Palestine gave away the land of Palestine

to another group of people in Europe and

that was it and the Palestinians weren't consulted

and they had their land taken away from

them.

Now there are nearly five million Palestinian refugees.

So I signed this petition and I have

supported justice for the Palestinians in, you know,

any way that I can be productive to

help their cause and to create public awareness

so that people can understand why the Palestinians

and are still 70 years on are still

living in refugee camps.

And there have been many times when I

have been asked a few years ago when

I visited Iran and I addressed some government

officials there and they said to me, will

you tell us about your Taliban experience?

And I said, yes, I will.

And I said, do you want the truth?

And they said, yes, of course we do.

I said, are you sure you want the

truth?

And they said, yes, of course.

So I told them the truth and I

could see this is not what they expected.

They expected to hear about abuse, *, torture,

primitive behavior.

And when I told them about my treatment,

including being invited to embrace Islam, they were

surprised and kept saying, but did they not

harm you?

But did they, you know, and I said,

I know it's what you want to hear,

but you said you wanted the truth and

I am telling you the truth.