At the Arab Media Forum in Dubai, Arab News spoke to Palestine’s youngest journalist, Janna Tamimi, below, who blogs on Facebook and Twitter under the name Janna Jihad. We asked 12-year-old Tamimi why she became a journalist and what advice she would give others on how to become one.
ARAB NEWS: What made you want to become a journalist?
JANNA TAMIMI: I started when I was 7 when I saw that there were not enough journalists to come and cover things that happen in Palestine and especially my village, like when my friend Mustapha was murdered and my Uncle Rushdie was killed also. A lot of things started to happen in the world and they didn’t know about our feelings as children living under occupation. So I wanted to be the voice of those children, the voice of their feelings when they are getting arrested or injured, or just being afraid of losing someone they love.
ARAB NEWS: What advice would you give other people your age or older on becoming a journalist?
JANNA TAMIMI: I wish that everybody could just tell the truth, and always be accurate about every single (piece of) information they give because, as you see, there are a lot of channels and outlets that don’t tell the Palestinian story the right way.