The conflict photographer Urretxu Andoni Lubaki has created the Ronak Press association with the BBC camera Jewan Abdi and journalist Karlos Zurutuza, and is giving journalism classes in Kurdistan.
They arrived two weeks ago. “We’ve created the Ronak Press association to help Kurdistan journalists take pictures and outdoor items. We came to these places as parachutists. We know how to work for external media, but we don't know the reality of our daily lives. Those here, for their part, know the day-to-day life here, but they don't know how to sell the stories and the photos out here. We want to be a bridge. With the help of a foundation, we are training local journalists."
The media teaches them how to do what they ask them to do. “The writing is carried by Carlos Zurutuza. It talks about sources, about verification of information..." Abdi teaches them how to use the camera and Lubaki teaches them how to make photos.
In recent days they have worked in Sulaymaniyah and in the universities of Kirkuk and Halabja. “We have students aged 18 to 65. Many of them are Syrian and ethnic refugees. We are calling for neither sexism nor racism, and many women have approached the press classes in particular. To photography not so much. That is why we will have to work to attract women to photography.”
We are very comfortable. “We came to teach 25-30 people and eventually handed it to 100 people. We're also giving lectures. The answer is being better than I expected. The media there are also surprised and we want to be with the mayors to repeat it every year.”
They are supported by the Zumarraga City Hall. “We asked for help and received a very good response. We are working as volunteers and the help of the City Hall is to pay the expenses."
While they were in Kurdistan, there was the murder of journalists David Beriain and Roberto Fraile. "It touched me. We are right now, but in other cases our work is often very hard psychologically and physically. As his colleague Ricardo García Vilanova says, he who enters this trade knows what he has to leave to get what he wants. What you have to leave is more than you have to do to win. The work of Beriain and Fraile was essential, but people have no interest. I despair, but this work is essential. Otherwise, we wouldn't know what's going on in the world. Free and honest journalism is necessary and they did.”
Vocation
What drives a person to leave Urretxu's comfortable life and go to a place where there's conflict? ‘Vocations. George Mallory was asked why he had to go when he had to go up to Everest. And he said he had to go because he was there. We are often asked: Why do you do this? By vocation. It’s a risky job, it’s badly paid, you have to work outside the house, you have to work many hours a day… If we put an ad in the newspaper, nobody would show up. When you say you're talking about conflicting journalism, more people appear. But it doesn't look like the image that Hollywood has sold. When it comes time to work, a lot of people retire. Resistance is necessary. The vocation. 24 hours a day you have to give 100% to get something and many times it is not valued. You have to believe that this trade is necessary for society."
