7 months ago
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Journalists person to proceed to inquire questions, nevertheless challenging a situation, Mariam Ouedraogo, writer from Burkina Faso successful westbound Africa, has said.
Ms. Ouedraogo was speaking astatine an enactment connected the 2nd time of the four-day International Media Festival of Kerala, organised by the Kerala Media Academy, present connected Tuesday.
The writer who was speaking successful French to writer and novelist Anupama Raju said determination would ever beryllium wars, conflict, authoritarian regimes, oregon different risks, but journalism had to relation and journalists had to talk up.
Though Ms. Ouedraogo, who works for the French connection paper Sidwaya, believes the superior work of a writer is to pass and make awareness, she spoke of instances wherever the powerfulness of the pen forced the authorities to act.
Reports
In 2015, her reports connected visually challenged students being near retired of mainstream acquisition forced to authorities to acceptable up a ngo to marque the acquisition strategy became much inclusive. Her reporting connected stateless women spurred the authorities to instrumentality contiguous steps to displacement the women to hostels. It besides led to sustained enactment to instrumentality women disconnected the streets and supply them a extortion implicit their heads. In 2018, Ms. Ouedraogo campaigned for entree to ultrasound machines to show the wellness of large women. The contented adjacent came to the attraction of the Prime Minister, starring to the installation of the machines.
Recently, she told the communicative of a 13-year-old miss who was raped by a 47-year-old antheral and ended up with a child. Ms. Ouedraogo brought radical unneurotic to guarantee the acquisition and the rehabilitation of the girl. The rape subsister received a assistance and continued her acquisition without being burdened by motherhood.
Her reporting that gives dependable to the voiceless, peculiarly those that amusement the devastating interaction of struggle connected women, person brought her planetary recognition. She has won astir 25 awards, including the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award and the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award. She has besides been named ‘Media Person of the Year 2025’ by Media, flagship mag of the Kerala Media Academy.
However, her enactment has besides taken a toll connected her health. Reliving horrific accounts of crimes against women has caused her to make post-traumatic accent disorder. Specialists person advised her to instrumentality a interruption yet she continues to study stories, incapable to enactment distant from thing that is happening astir her everyday.
She has learnt to unrecorded with the trauma.
Mental health
Yet, she advises journalists and those aspiring to go 1 to prioritise their well-being, particularly intelligence health, and support a buffer betwixt themselves and the suffering of the subjects successful their reports.
Ms. Ouedraogo feels that the struggle successful Burkina Faso and neighbouring areas does not get arsenic overmuch media sum arsenic those successful galore different places astir the world. It needs to beryllium reported conscionable arsenic the concern successful Gaza oregon Ukraine is, she says.
