Last week, Middle East Editor Samia Nakhoul was awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre national du Mérite, one of France’s highest honors, for her venerable career covering the Middle East. Samia has covered some the region’s most significant events for Reuters, including the 2003 Iraq War – where she suffered severe injury – and the fall of Tripoli in 2011. Along the way, she has picked up a number of distinguished journalism awards for her work, including a Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation, a Pulitzer Prize finalist nod, the International Council for Press and Broadcasting’s Peace Through Media award, among others. In a Reuters Best: Journalist Spotlight Q&A, Samia reflects on her career as a correspondent in the Middle East and what it means to her to be a journalist.
Q. What makes you passionate about journalism? And why did you become a journalist?
A. I come from a region that has been riven with conflict, suffering and injustice, for almost as long as anyone can remember. It has always seemed to me to be important to bear witness to this, and then, at a young age, I came to the conclusion that journalism was – at least for me – the best way to do so. One of the primary aims of journalism in the Middle East is surely to expose the full truth, and that involves revealing the full horror of so many events, including war crimes and atrocities committed against civilians in the hope that the world understands what is happening and even that justice may eventually prevail. In a very complex region dominated by sectarianism, factionalism, tribalism and authoritarianism, I am of course aware how difficult this is, as well as how deadly it can become. Hundreds of journalists have been killed in this region over the past decade – bearing witness – but it is the job of journalists here to continue trying to do so.
I think what inspired me to become a journalist is that I grew up during the Lebanese civil war, which lasted for 15 long years. As a child I watched death and destruction all around me, witnessed heart-wrenching tragedies of families struck by death and disaster. In the shelter where I stayed with my family during bouts of bombardment and shelling I lived in fear and learnt what war can do to people. I saw people break down from fear or at news of people they lost. I guess I decided then that I wanted to be able to tell the world what people go through during war.
Q. What do you find most difficult about your job?
A. The most difficult or worst part is losing colleagues or friends in the field, witnessing massacres and reporting from war zones putting our own lives at risk. It has never been more dangerous to be a correspondent in the Middle East than now because journalists have become prime targets for Islamist extremists who are kidnapping, arresting, intimidating, torturing and beheading journalists. The numbers of correspondents, cameramen and photographers killed has gone up alarmingly over the past decade or more since the Iraq war.
Q. What have you found most fulfilling about covering the Middle East?
A. The most rewarding is when we expose atrocities and document war crimes and see that the world has taken notice and moved into action to prevent further massacres, as has happened in some recent cases, such as when the coalition forces acted to prevent Islamic State fighters from moving into Kurdish areas, where they would have certainly carried out massacres.
Q. What have been your most rewarding and most difficult experiences as a journalist?
A. The most fulfilling was also one of the most wrenching: writing about a 12-year-old Ali Abbas Ismail, who lost his entire family and both arms during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This raised international attention. As a result of my initial story, and a flood of others that followed afterwards, Ali became the iconic image of the Iraq war and was immediately evacuated to Britain, where he was fitted with artificial arms and eventually studied and lived and rebuilt his shattered life. He recently got married and said he didn’t expect to live, let alone be loved and marry.
Q. How do you handle your work/life balance?
A. I am more conscious of finding time for family and for myself – even a couple of hours of quality time every day matters. I was born in a region of conflict and wars. I grew up during the civil war of Lebanon, went to school, graduated and started my career during war time. I learnt that one has to seize the moment and enjoy life fully. The conflicts are never ending but keep on multiplying in this part of the world, so one has to make the best of life.
Q. Can you imagine being anything other than a journalist? If so, what?
A. Since I was 10 all I wanted was to become a journalist, this is the only job that I feel passionate about.
To read the latest from Samia Nakhoul, click here.
