Bravery in action:
A nice snippet by Greg Raver-Lampman and Natalia A. Feduschak from the March/April Columbia Journalism Review describes how sign-language interpreter Natalia Dmitruk subverted state-sponsored lies during the recent elections in Ukraine:
While reporting the results on state-run TV, Dmitruk signed: ‘Don’t believe the results from the Central Election Commission. They are not true. Our president is Viktor Yushchenko.’
She then briefly returned to translating the actual newscast but broke away from the script once again: ‘I am ashamed to be translating these lies to you. I won’t do it again.’ She knew such honesty would get her fired, but, she says, lying to her ‘listeners’ – deaf Ukrainians- ‘weighed heavily on my soul.’
‘Can you imagine if Yanukovych had won?’ Dmitruk joked warily. ‘I would be under the asphalt.’ She offers no opinions about whether renowned journalists in her country should have risked their careers to get the truth out. ‘I am not a journalist,’ Dmitruk says. ‘I was convinced I was doing the right thing.’
Lifted directly from Counago and Spaves.
