I want to tell you a story about a girl. But I can't tell you her real name. So let's just call her Hadiza.
Želim da vam ispričam priču o devojci. Ali vam ne mogu reći njeno pravo ime. Zvaćemo je Hadiza.
Hadiza is 20. She's shy, but she has a beautiful smile that lights up her face. But she's in constant pain. And she will likely be on medication for the rest of her life.
Hadiza ima 20 godina. Ona je stidljiva, ali ima prelep osmeh koji joj ozari lice. Ali je u stalnim bolovima. I najverovatnije će biti na lekovima do kraja života.
Do you want to know why? Hadiza is a Chibok girl, and on April 14, 2014, she was kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists. She managed to escape, though, by jumping off the truck that was carrying the girls. But when she landed, she broke both her legs, and she had to crawl on her tummy to hide in the bushes. She told me she was terrified that Boko Haram would come back for her. She was one of 57 girls who would escape by jumping off trucks that day.
Želite li da znate zašto? Hadiza je devojčica iz Čiboka, i 14. aprila 2014. kidnapovali su je teroristi iz Boko Harama. Ipak, uspela je da pobegne, tako što je skočila sa kamiona koji je prevozio devojčice. Ali kada je pala, slomila je obe noge, i morala je da puzi na stomaku, da bi se sakrila u žbunju. Rekla mi je da je bila preplašena da će Boko Haram da se vrati po nju. Ona je bila jedna od 57 devojčica koje su pobegle tako što su iskočile iz kamiona.
This story, quite rightly, caused ripples around the world. People like Michelle Obama, Malala and others lent their voices in protest, and at about the same time -- I was living in London at the time -- I was sent from London to Abuja to cover the World Economic Forum that Nigeria was hosting for the first time. But when we arrived, it was clear that there was only one story in town. We put the government under pressure. We asked tough questions about what they were doing to bring these girls back. Understandably, they weren't too happy with our line of questioning, and let's just say we received our fair share of "alternative facts."
Ova priča je, sasvim opravdano, izazvala buru svuda oko sveta. Ljudi poput Mišel Obame, Malale i drugih su digli glas u znak protesta, i otprilike u to vreme - živela sam u Londonu - bila sam poslata iz Londona u Abudžu da pokrivam Svetski ekonomski forum kom je Nigerija bila domaćin po prvi put. Kada smo stigli, bilo je jasno da postoji samo jedna verzija priče. Pritisnuli smo vladu. Postavljali smo teška pitanja o tome šta su radili da vrate ove devojčice. Naravno, nisu bili presrećni našim ispitivanjem i recimo da smo dobili svoju dozu "alternativnih činjenica".
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Influential Nigerians were telling us at the time that we were naïve, we didn't understand the political situation in Nigeria. But they also told us that the story of the Chibok girls was a hoax. Sadly, this hoax narrative has persisted, and there are still people in Nigeria today who believe that the Chibok girls were never kidnapped. Yet I was talking to people like these -- devastated parents, who told us that on the day Boko Haram kidnapped their daughters, they ran into the Sambisa Forest after the trucks carrying their daughters. They were armed with machetes, but they were forced to turn back because Boko Haram had guns.
Uticajni Nigerijci u to vreme su nam govorili da smo bili naivni, da nismo razumeli političku situaciju u Nigeriji. Takođe su nam rekli da je priča o devojčicama iz Čiboka jedna prevara. Nažalost, ova priča o prevari je istrajala i još uvek postoje ljudi u Nigeriji koji veruju da devojčice iz Čiboka nikada nisu kidnapovane. Ipak, pričala sam sa ljudima poput ovih - rastrzanim roditeljima, koji su nam rekli da su na dan kada im je Boko Haram kidnapovao ćerke trčali u šumu Sambisa za kamionima u kojim su im bile ćerke. Bili su naoružani mačetama, ali morali su da se vrate jer je Boko Haram imao puške.
For two years, inevitably, the news agenda moved on, and for two years, we didn't hear much about the Chibok girls. Everyone presumed they were dead. But in April last year, I was able to obtain this video. This is a still from the video that Boko Haram filmed as a proof of life, and through a source, I obtained this video. But before I could publish it, I had to travel to the northeast of Nigeria to talk to the parents, to verify it. I didn't have to wait too long for confirmation. One of the mothers, when she watched the video, told me that if she could have reached into the laptop and pulled our her child from the laptop, she would have done so. For those of you who are parents, like myself, in the audience, you can only imagine the anguish that that mother felt.
Neizbežno je da se za dve godine priča u vestima izgubila i dve godine nismo čuli ništa o devojčicama iz Čiboka. Svi su mislili da su mrtve. Ali aprila prošle godine, dobila sam ovaj snimak. Ovo je kadar iz snimka koji je Boko Haram snimio kao dokaz života i kroz svoj izvor, dobila sam snimak. Ali pre nego sam mogla da ga objavim, morala sam da otputujem na severoistok Nigerije da roditelji potvrde autentičnost. Nisam dugo morala da čekam. Jedna od majki mi je rekla, kada je pogledala snimak, da bi, da je mogla da posegne u laptop i izvuče svoje dete odatle, to bi i uradila. Za vas u publici poput mene, koji ste roditelji, možete samo zamisliti mučninu koju je osećala ta majka.
This video would go on to kick-start negotiation talks with Boko Haram. And a Nigerian senator told me that because of this video they entered into those talks, because they had long presumed that the Chibok girls were dead. Twenty-one girls were freed in October last year. Sadly, nearly 200 of them still remain missing.
Ovaj video pokrenuo je razgovore sa Boko Haramom. Nigerijski senator mi je rekao da su u pregovore ušli zbog ovog snimka, jer su dugo pretpostavljali da su devojčice iz Čiboka mrtve. Oslobođena je 21 devojčica u oktobru prošle godine. Nažalost, njih 200 još uvek nije nađeno.
I must confess that I have not been a dispassionate observer covering this story. I am furious when I think about the wasted opportunities to rescue these girls. I am furious when I think about what the parents have told me, that if these were daughters of the rich and the powerful, they would have been found much earlier. And I am furious that the hoax narrative, I firmly believe, caused a delay; it was part of the reason for the delay in their return.
Moram da priznam da nisam bila objektivni posmatrač u ovoj priči. Pobesnim kada pomislim na propuštene prilike da se spase ove devojčice. Pobesnim kada pomislim na ono što su mi roditelji rekli, da kada bi ovo bile ćerke bogatih i moćnih, pronašli bi ih mnogo ranije. I pobesnim zato što verujem da je priča o prevari izazvala odlaganje, uverena sam u to. To je bio deo razloga za odlaganje povratka.
This illustrates to me the deadly danger of fake news. So what can we do about it? There are some very smart people, smart engineers at Google and Facebook, who are trying to use technology to stop the spread of fake news. But beyond that, I think everybody here -- you and I -- we have a role to play in that. We are the ones who share the content. We are the ones who share the stories online. In this day and age, we're all publishers, and we have responsibility.
Ovo mi prikazuje smrtonosnu opasnost lažnih vesti. Šta da uradimo povodom ovoga? Postoje veoma pametni ljudi, pametni inžinjeri u Guglu i Fejsbuku, koji pokušavaju da tehnologijom spreče širenje lažnih vesti. Ali dalje od toga, mislim da svako ovde ima ulogu u tome. Mi smo oni koji dele sadržaj. Mi smo oni koji dele priče na internetu. U današnje doba, svi smo izdavači i imamo odgovornost.
In my job as a journalist, I check, I verify. I trust my gut, but I ask tough questions. Why is this person telling me this story? What do they have to gain by sharing this information? Do they have a hidden agenda? I really believe that we must all start to ask tougher questions of information that we discover online.
U svojoj novinarskoj profesiji, proveravam, verifikujem, verujem osećaju, ali postavljam teška pitanja. Zašto mi ova osoba govori ovo? Šta dobijaju deljenjem ove informacije? Imaju li skrivene namere? Verujem da moramo da počnemo da postavljamo teža pitanja za informacije koje nađemo na internetu.
Research shows that some of us don't even read beyond headlines before we share stories. Who here has done that? I know I have. But what if we stopped taking information that we discover at face value? What if we stop to think about the consequence of the information that we pass on and its potential to incite violence or hatred? What if we stop to think about the real-life consequences of the information that we share?
Istraživanje pokazuje da neki od nas ne čitaju dalje od naslova pre nego podele priče. Ko je ovde uradio to? Znam da ja jesam. Ali šta kada bismo prestali da informacije koje dobijamo uzimamo zdravo za gotovo? Šta kada bismo pomislili na posledice koje informacije koje prosleđujemo imaju kao i potencijal za podsticanje nasilja ili mržnje? Šta kada bismo razmislili o stvarnim posledicama informacija koje delimo?
Thank you very much for listening.
Hvala što ste me slušali.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)