My Right To Tell The Story
Guest blogger Dwain Lucktung has submitted this piece about how he uses his passion for journalism as a form of expression; as part of our “Right To Be Me” series in the run up to the International AIDS Conference 2010 in Vienna...
Censorship occurs around the world – padlocking the voices of freedom and expression. Whilst certain powers that be continue to pursue this oppression, I believe journalism (and more so online journalism today) remains the key to unhinging the strangle-hold some corrupt bodies have. I embrace my right to expose the lies and speak the truth, and my passion enables me to do that and share that information with my peers – so why stop now.
Journalism is something I’ve always seen myself doing and something I now do with great pride. It’s so much more than reading, writing and reporting. It’s about communicating, networking, really getting out there, adapting with the world’s audiences and living the stories you write about.
The best students don’t necessarily make the best journalists… I learnt that pretty swiftly following my 3-year crawl through university. I hated mundane lectures, exams and alcoholic/monotone professors, but I lived for the REAL aspects of journalism – the stuff they can’t teach you; bundling your way through a mass protest (for that perfect snapshot), exposing government corruption (with that dangerous frontline atmosphere), reviewing Vancouver’s finest on the music scene to interviewing kids on the streets of the Democratic Republic of Congo – and all to bring home a compelling story.
Come to mind, I doubt I could do anything else even partially as well. I’m way too fidgety a person, boredom strikes too easily (yes I was that student dozing off at the back of the lecture hall), but journalism is a 24/7 game I think I’ll be able to play for at least a few more years.
When I was a nervous, stuttering, chubby teen writer bustling through east London, one of my lifelong mentors always told me, ‘Find your voice, and find the power of journalism’. Sounds like a very soppy Spiderman-esque life motto, but that is exactly why journalism is such a personal thing, you are communicating a story that may resonate with so many, yet is so personal at the same time. I still won’t undermine the sensation of seeing your name (however small and italic) credited for a stunning, thought-provoking little piece of media. I think any author, blogger, writer and journalist would get the jist of that cheesy thought…
But there’s the life lesson that I hope to leave for the next generation of budding street reporters. Exercise your right to live and breathe your passion and you will find that not only will you empower yourself but you’ll capture others in turn. And don’t worry about the bags under your eyes, like me – embrace them with a stiff cup of coffee and scheduled power-naps.
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