Gall tells aspiring journalists to ‘go to a warzone,’ recounts experiences in Middle East

Carlotta Gall, a New York Times correspondent who spent the past 11 years reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan, said she is not scared easily.

The British reporter spoke about her experiences in the Middle East Wednesday at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences, addressing an audience of about 50 people.

She told stories about interviewing families of Taliban members, covering bombings and reporting on the death of Osama bin Laden.

Despite the nature of her job, Gall said she does not view reporting from war zones as risking her life.

“I just see it as, I’m not too frightened to go to a foreign country and watch a demonstration and, you know, you duck into a café when the tear gas starts,” she said.

International Relations Professor Stephen Kinzer organized the talk. He said the unexpectedly large turnout was a testament to Gall being “one of the outstanding correspondents of our generation.”

In addition to listing some of her experiences in the field, Gall offered advice to the students.

“Go to a warzone,” she said. “You’re often on the front page, and to tell you the truth, they’ll take any copy you have, no matter how bad it is. They want to be able to have that dateline, and to say ‘Our reporter was there.’”

That was the situation when bin Laden was killed, she said.

The day after President Barack Obama made the announcement that the Taliban leader was dead, she and an associate got into the neighborhood where bin Laden had been hiding and interviewed neighbors who saw people going in and out of the house.

Acknowledging that she was often in dangerous situations, Gall said her motto was that “no story is worth a life.”

On several occasions the Taliban threatened Gall and her team. On one occasion, Taliban members followed them to their hotel, stole Gall’s computer and notes, beat her up and attacked the people that she had interviewed, she said.

Gall will spend the next 10 months as a Niemen Fellow at Harvard University, she said, adding that she hoped to return to Afghanistan this summer to write a book about the region. But in the long term, she said, “I still want to be a foreign correspondent.”

After spending 17 years abroad, Gall said she is still adjusting to life in the United States.

Gall told students that some journalists have a difficult time being abroad and away from their families.

“Not many friends came to Afghanistan to visit,” she joked.

Still, Gall said she encouraged students that “they really should try to live in a country and really soak it up.”

After listening to Gall’s speech and hearing about her struggles, including bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder, BU College of Communication senior Emanuelle Honnorat said she wondered how “incredible” it must be to be a war reporter.

Honnorat said in spite of everything else, “you’re still human first – not a reporter.”

“I think it’s really interesting to see a female point of view,” said COM junior Scott Eisen. “You don’t see many female correspondents out there.”

Matthew Crowe, a BU International Relations graduate student, said the talk was relevant to students studying subjects other than journalism.

“I wanted to come see Carlotta Gall speak because this is my area of study,” he said. “I’m still an active-duty soldier and I want to see and learn as much as possible from her experiences.”