People & Places
2021 Shifa Gardi Award winner Alex Crawford giving her acceptance speech via video message. Photo: Rudaw
The 2021 Shifa Gardi Award has been awarded to Sky News journalist Alex Crawford. Rudaw has decided to publish the full transcript of her acceptance speech, delivered via video message.
Hi everyone, I am so sorry that we can't all be together because of this pandemic. It has been a pretty awful year for so many people across so many different countries.
And I think the email that I got telling me about this award was probably one of the best things that’s happened to me all year.
A huge, huge, big thank you for recognizing the work that me and my team have done. It means an awful lot.
Before I go on though, I want to say a couple of words about Shifa Gardi, a young woman who I did not know, but I remember this tragedy happening at the time, because I too was in Mosul then covering the military operation. And her death shocked us all. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like if you loved and respected Shifa and worked with her like so many of you have. So today, of all days, I just want to remember her and the awful tragedy of her death.
And remember, she died pursuing journalism, and I think Rudaw TV setting up this award in honor of her does a great honor to all journalists across the world, many of whom are facing very, very challenging times, not least because of the global pandemic, because there is an increased attention on journalism, and the work that the journalists do. It is becoming more and more difficult for all journalists across the world to operate, not only in the midst of the pandemic when many countries, many with autocratic leaders or dictators are using the pandemic as a way of controlling independent journalism as a way of trying to stifle free speech, as a way of trying to clamp down on transparency.
It is incumbent on all of us, on all journalists, to try and fight, keep on fighting against those restrictions, so that the stories that need to be told continue to be told. It has been a really tough year for everybody, but I think it has also shown in many ways the best side of journalists across the world, who have been struggling against all the odds to try and get the stories out there, not just about coronavirus and all the implications and the impact tat is having on everyone, but also to do other stories.
You mentioned my team’s work in Yemen and I think it goes without saying that no one journalist can really operate on their own. So I have got to a huge big thank you to all the people who worked with me, particularly my camera man Kevin Shepherds, some of the long-suffering producers Emily Upton in America, Zein Jaafar who came with us to Yemen, Ahmad Baaider who is in Yemen, who helped us do some of those incredibly important stories in my view, in trying to uncover evidence which could potentially prove war crimes by a number of countries.
And in the middle of all this are millions of civilians. Largely in every conflict that you go to, you find the civilians who are right at the center of it, who are victims in all of this.
It is a massive, massive honor to be recognized by you and by the panel. And I want to say just before I go, it is an incredible honor enough just to be recognised in this way. The award money is incredibly generous and I am going to donate it to three different organizations
First, to Mwatana, the human rights organization, an independent one, which is fighting trying to uncover war crimes and human rights abuses in Yemen.
Secondly, to INARA, which is the charity set up by Arwa Damon which helps to get medical aid to young Syrian children who are horribly mutilated by the war author and third to the Marie Colvin Foundation which helps to encourage journalists in the Middle East, particularly with a focus on female journalists.
I hope you think this is a worthy use of the award money and thank you very much. I hope we meet sometime in the future.
Hi everyone, I am so sorry that we can't all be together because of this pandemic. It has been a pretty awful year for so many people across so many different countries.
And I think the email that I got telling me about this award was probably one of the best things that’s happened to me all year.
A huge, huge, big thank you for recognizing the work that me and my team have done. It means an awful lot.
Before I go on though, I want to say a couple of words about Shifa Gardi, a young woman who I did not know, but I remember this tragedy happening at the time, because I too was in Mosul then covering the military operation. And her death shocked us all. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like if you loved and respected Shifa and worked with her like so many of you have. So today, of all days, I just want to remember her and the awful tragedy of her death.
And remember, she died pursuing journalism, and I think Rudaw TV setting up this award in honor of her does a great honor to all journalists across the world, many of whom are facing very, very challenging times, not least because of the global pandemic, because there is an increased attention on journalism, and the work that the journalists do. It is becoming more and more difficult for all journalists across the world to operate, not only in the midst of the pandemic when many countries, many with autocratic leaders or dictators are using the pandemic as a way of controlling independent journalism as a way of trying to stifle free speech, as a way of trying to clamp down on transparency.
It is incumbent on all of us, on all journalists, to try and fight, keep on fighting against those restrictions, so that the stories that need to be told continue to be told. It has been a really tough year for everybody, but I think it has also shown in many ways the best side of journalists across the world, who have been struggling against all the odds to try and get the stories out there, not just about coronavirus and all the implications and the impact tat is having on everyone, but also to do other stories.
You mentioned my team’s work in Yemen and I think it goes without saying that no one journalist can really operate on their own. So I have got to a huge big thank you to all the people who worked with me, particularly my camera man Kevin Shepherds, some of the long-suffering producers Emily Upton in America, Zein Jaafar who came with us to Yemen, Ahmad Baaider who is in Yemen, who helped us do some of those incredibly important stories in my view, in trying to uncover evidence which could potentially prove war crimes by a number of countries.
And in the middle of all this are millions of civilians. Largely in every conflict that you go to, you find the civilians who are right at the center of it, who are victims in all of this.
It is a massive, massive honor to be recognized by you and by the panel. And I want to say just before I go, it is an incredible honor enough just to be recognised in this way. The award money is incredibly generous and I am going to donate it to three different organizations
First, to Mwatana, the human rights organization, an independent one, which is fighting trying to uncover war crimes and human rights abuses in Yemen.
Secondly, to INARA, which is the charity set up by Arwa Damon which helps to get medical aid to young Syrian children who are horribly mutilated by the war author and third to the Marie Colvin Foundation which helps to encourage journalists in the Middle East, particularly with a focus on female journalists.
I hope you think this is a worthy use of the award money and thank you very much. I hope we meet sometime in the future.
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