Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you very much for this warm reception.

First, I would like to say thanks to the International Center for Journalists for this award and for recognizing me on this special night. As a woman journalist, I really feel honored to get such award.

Shadha al-Jubori accepted the Knight International Journalism Award in Washington, D.C. on November 15 at ICFJ's 8th Annual Excellence in International Journalism Awards Dinner.

I would like, also, to say thanks for Elizabeth Colton who nominated me for this award, and to the BBC Arabic Service, which spared no effort in supporting me and my colleagues in the Baghdad office where I have worked for about three years. And special thanks to my managers at BBC: Hossam El Sokkari and Bassam Andari who honor me by attending this special event tonight.

And above all, I would like to thank my sister Ghada. She has supported me all my life and stood beside me during the most crucial times. I wish indeed that she were here tonight to share one of my greatest moments in my life. Ghada was denied a visa to travel to the United States.

Ladies and gentlemen, with the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003, journalism in Iraq has entered a new era of freedom and liberty after long years of dictatorship and oppression. However, we Iraqi journalists are now paying a high price for our freedom.

Over these hard years I have lost so many of my friends and colleagues. They were either killed, threatened or went abroad to save their lives. Every time I lose one of them I ask myself: Shadha are you going to continue? And each time I get the same answer which is: Do I have other choice? I think it’s my fate to be an Iraqi journalist.

Ladies and Gentlemen, some of you may think that I’m too inexperienced to get such a prestigious award in the world of journalism. It is true that I have worked less than ten years in the field. Yet, the last three years in which I covered events in Iraq seem to me like ages and ages. I worked so hard to cover the bloodiest events in Baghdad and other cities, the political changes, the trial of Saddam, the daily lives of Iraqis in wartime, and so many other issues that have enriched me with experience and knowledge.

I left Baghdad two months ago to get my master’s degree in international journalism from City University in London. Life in London is no doubt much easier and more luxurious than in Baghdad. But I will go back. I feel committed because my family is in Baghdad, and so are my greatest moments and memories. Above all, my work is in Baghdad…

Thank you very much for this honor.