jamal osman
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Jamal Osman the river newsTRANSCRIPT
Friday March 2 - March 22 2012 TheRiver 3NEWS
riveronline.co.uk
Kingston upon Thames has been
voted the happiest place to live in
and around London according
to a survey conducted by Estate
Agents, Rightmove.
The leafy borough pipped Croy-don and Dartford to the top spot in a survey that measured happiness by twelve factors including pride, amenities and safety.
Kingston’s claim might be dis-puted by the other boroughs be-cause of its astronomical house prices, but with the Thames run-ning through the town, Richmond Park and easy commuter access to central London, they are to be ex-pected.
home of ‘Suburban Snowboard-ing’, Kingston is also home to the likes of former England rugby cap-tain Chris Robshaw and children’s
author Jacqueline Wilson.We asked some of the student
population to see if they agreed with the survey’s results and found some students expressing their doubts.Rory Dixon, 23, said: “I would
disagree, but if you love high street shopping and terrible nightclubs you’d be happy enough.”Jakob Cizic, 22, said: “Who de-
cided that? It’s complete rubbish.”The results came after another
survey saw London come second in the global top 50 best cities for students, beaten only by Paris. Bos-ton, on the east coast of the United States, was third.After looking at the reputation
and ‘quality of life’ of the universi-ties, London was eventually beaten on the issue of tuition fees.The survey, aimed at foreign
students making up their mind on where to study, concluded that Paris was more student friendly, as
the average fees for international student is only £628 ($1,000) a year, compared with up to £12,500 ($20,000) in London.Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS)
Best Student Cities 2012 consid-ered cities that had at least two top universities and a population of more than 250,000.Other UK cities in the top 50
were Edinburgh, coming 20th, Manchester 35th, Birmingham 47th and Glasgow 50th.
riveronline.co.uk47th and Glasgow 50th.
riveronline.co.uk
Kingston voted happiest place to live in LondonJames Baines &
Myriam Dijck
A former Kingston University
student has won a prestigious
Television Journalism award for
Channel 4 News at The Royal
Television Society Awards.
Osman won the independent award for his documentary Somali Olym-pic Dreams
running daily through Mogadishu‘s “road of death”.“I am happy for everyone who
was involved in the making of the story,” said Jamal. “But it was more about these athletes who want to do something positive which you don’t usually see in Somalia. It’s inspirational.”Somalia-born Jamal, who gradu-
ated from Kingston in 2009, beat off other nominees which included
FIFA’s Dirty Se-
crets.
The story revealed a haunting glimpse into the challenges faced by Somali athletes to get to the Olympic Games, when they are constantly under threat of being shot by rebel gunmen or nervous
security forces.“These guys were really deter-
mined to achieve something,” said Jamal. “Even if they don’t win a gold medal, to at least make it to the Olympics, while everyone else around is picking up arms and do-ing bad things, is really important.”
“remarkable project” which was “heart-warming, uplifting and heartbreaking by turn”.
unique way, the power of human
desire to succeed in any circum-stances. An admirable venture to tell a story about brave and indomi-table athletes.”Somalia has been without an ef-
fective central government since
rival warlords combined with fam-ine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people.
times the gunmen were shooting at
mal. “I knew it would be dangerous
but I thought this was a story that was worth it.”Jamal also visited the Somali
year of university and won the News Story Prize of the Year at the 2009 Foreign Press Association Awards for his exposé of theft of UN food aid, which showed refu-gees being forced to pay for aid at gunpoint.Later that year, Jamal managed
to gain exclusive access to inter-view hostages Paul and Rachel
Chandler, who had been kidnapped by Somali pirates whilst sailing off the coast of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.Jamal said that his Somali back-
ground and upbringing inspired him to become a journalist.“As a Somali human being I have always asked myself what my role in this world is,” he said. “As a journalist, I can expose injustices and corruptions.“That’s the reason I wanted to be-come a journalist. To help others, if you like.”Jamal was unable to speak Eng-
lish when he arrived in the UK in
legally bring him to Europe. He was granted asylum and in 2005 decided to go back to educa-tion, working as a minicab driver at weekends, which proved a perfect source of stories and simultane-ously improved his English.He was awarded Kingston Uni-
versity News Reporter of the Year in 2009 and has since gone on to produce and report for Channel 4, The Guardian, The Sunday Times
and Aljazeera English.
Kelly Alford
K0912499
A procession heading towards the former military camp of Malabe, Somalia Pic: Rex A procession heading towards the former military camp of Malabe, Somalia Pic: Rex A procession heading towards the former military camp of Malabe, Somalia Pic: Rex A procession heading towards the former military camp of Malabe, Somalia Pic: Rex
Jamal Osman Pic: KU Jamal gained access to interview hostages, Paul and Rachel Chandler Pic: Rex
KU grad’s ‘road of death’ documentary wins award
From a non-English speaking taxi driver to an award winning journalist, Jamal Osman reports back from his homeland