We walk, we run, we clench our buttocks and turn a corner. This is my third week on assignment in a Middle East conflict zone. So, I ask him out loud whether we venture a little closer.Ĭhristian thinks I’m crazy – and green. But as we peek, there’s no sign of the tanks and guns. We’re very aware if we venture down there, the Israelis are likely to fire on anything that moves. I have the fortune of working with one of CNN’s most experienced camera operators, Christian Streib – now CNN’s Chief International Photojournalist – and I suggest to him we take a sneak-peek down a side street, towards the Israeli military’s restricted zone. In the Intifada, this is the imbalance of compromise. On this day, we know Palestinians have been bussed away, apparently set for a life in exile, never to return to their homes and families.

I’ve been producing the coverage of military snipers picking off anyone who appears in a window, watching an ancient church that’s seen so much and waiting for a diplomatic resolution to be struck, far from here. I’m on the barbed-wire barricades and at the CNN rooftop live-shot.

Outside, the Israeli military have guns trained on the church, there to arrest the Palestinians. Inside, Palestinians accused by Israel of being militants, along with monks, civilians and church staff, are sheltering. The Church of the Nativity is under siege. It’s the Spring of 2002, the middle of the second Intifada. So, let’s begin in Bethlehem – as so much has.

I want you to imagine where it could take you. I do this in the hope that it leads a few of you – and others out there listening – to try a little harder, reach a little higher and travel a little further than you otherwise might.

The ABC News audience is bigger, broader and more diverse than it has ever been.įor the next generation there is so much to be excited about.Īs I reach my destination, I wanted to share some reflections on the journey I’ve taken, full of so many experiences I never dared to imagine as I set out. The ABC is stronger, more relevant and as crucial to Australia than at any time in its history. Today journalism is healthier than we feared it might be not so long ago. As I leave the newsroom, I wanted the theme of today to be a message to the future, so it’s very important to me that you’re here. It’s very important to me to have with us today emerging journalism stars of the ABC and media students setting out on their adventures.

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