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I want to tell you a story

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about a girl,

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but I can't tell you her real name.

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So let's just call her Hadiza.

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Hadiza is 20.

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She's shy, but she has a beautiful smile

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that lights up her face,

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but she's in constant pain

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and she will likely be on medication
for the rest of her life.

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Do you want to know why?

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Hadiza is a Chibok girl,

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and on April 14, 2014,
she was kidnapped

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by Boko Haram terrorists.

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She managed to escape, though,

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by jumping off the truck
that was carrying the girls,

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but when she landed,
she broke both her legs

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and she had to crawl on her tummy
to hide in the bushes.

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She told me she was terrified
that Boko Haram would come back for her.

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She was one of 57 girls who would escape
by jumping off trucks that day.

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This story quite rightly caused ripples

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around the world.

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People like Michelle Obama,
Malala, and others

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lent their voices in protest,

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and at about the same time,
I was living in London at the time,

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I was sent from London to Abuja
to cover the World Economic Forum

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that Nigeria was hosting
for the first time.

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But when we arrived, it was clear
that there was only one story in town.

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We put the government under pressure.

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We asked tough questions
about what they were doing

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to bring these girls back.

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Understandably,

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they weren't too happy
with our line of questioning,

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and let's just say we received
our fair share of "alternative facts."

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(Laughter)

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Influential Nigerians
were telling us at the time

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that we were naïve,

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we didn't understand
the political situation in Nigeria.

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But they also told us

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that the story of the Chibok girls

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was a hoax.

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Sadly, this hoax narrative has persisted

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and there are still people
in NIgeria today

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who believe that the Chibok girls
were never kidnapped.

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Yet I was talking to people like these,

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devastated parents

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who told us that on the day
that Boko Haram kidnapped their daughters

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they ran into the Sambisa Forest
after the trucks carrying their daughters.

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They were armed with machetes,
but they were forced to turn back

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because Boko Haram had guns.

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For two years, inevitably,
the news agenda moved on,

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and for two years

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we didn't hear much
about the Chibok girls.

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Everyone presumed they were dead,

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but in April last year,

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I was able to obtain this video.

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This is a still from the video

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that Boko Haram filmed as a proof of life,

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and through a source
I obtained this video.

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But before I could publish it, I had to
travel to the northeast of Nigeria

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to talk to the parents, to verify it.

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I didn't have to wait
too long for confirmation.

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One of the mothers,
when she watched the video, told me

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that if she could have reached
into the laptop

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and pulled our her child from the laptop,
she would have done so.

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For those of you who are parents
like myself in the audience,

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you can only imagine the anguish

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that that mother felt.

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This video would go on to kickstart
negotiation talks with Boko Haram,

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and a Nigerian senator told me
that because of this video

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they entered into those talks

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because they had long presumed
that the Chibok girls were dead.

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Twenty-one girls were freed
in October last year.

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Sadly, nearly 200 of them
still remain missing.

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I must confess that I have not been
a dispassionate observer

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covering this story.

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I am furious when I think
about the wasted opportunities

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to rescue these girls.

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I am furious when I think about
what the parents have told me,

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that if these were daughters
of the rich and the powerful,

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they would have been found much earlier.

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And I am furious

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that the hoax narrative

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I firmly believe caused a delay

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was part of the reason
for the delay in their return.

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This illustrates to me
the deadly danger of fake news.

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So what can we do about it?

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There are some very smart people,

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smart engineers at Google and Facebook,

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who are trying to use technology
to stop the spread of fake news.

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But beyond that, I think everybody here,

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you and I, we have a role to play in that.

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We are the ones who share the content.

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We are the ones who share
the stories online.

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In this day and age, we're all publishers,

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and we have responsibility.

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In my job as a journalist,

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I check, I verify.

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I trust my gut, but I ask tough questions.

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Why is this person telling me this story?

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What do they have to gain

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by sharing this information?

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Do they have a hidden agenda?

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I really believe that we must all
start to ask tougher questions

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of information that we discover online.

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Research shows that some of us
don't even read beyond headlines

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before we share stories.

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Who here has done that?

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I know I have.

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But what if

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we stopped taking information
that we discover at face value?

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What if we stop to think
about the consequence

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of the information that we pass on

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and its potential to incite
violence or hatred?

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What if we stop to think
about the real-life consequences

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of the information that we share?

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Thank you very much for listening.

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(Applause)