How I named, shamed and jailed | Anas Aremeyaw Anas

230,376 views ・ 2013-06-05

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Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast
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I am sorry I cannot show you my face,
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because if I do, the bad guys will come for me.
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My journey started 14 years ago.
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I was a young reporter. I had just come out of college.
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Then I got a scoop.
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The scoop was quite a very simple story.
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Police officers were taking bribes
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from hawkers who were hawking on the streets.
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As a young reporter, I thought that I should do it
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in a different way, so that it has a maximum impact,
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since everybody knew that it was happening,
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and yet there was nothing that was keeping it out of the system.
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So I decided to go there
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and act as a seller.
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As part of selling, I was able to document
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the hard core evidence.
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The impact was great.
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It was fantastic.
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This was what many call immersion journalism,
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or undercover journalism.
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I am an undercover journalist.
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My journalism is hinged on three basic principles:
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naming, shaming and jailing.
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Journalism is about results.
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It's about affecting your community or your society
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in the most progressive way.
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I have worked on this for over 14 years,
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and I can tell you, the results are very good.
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One story that comes to mind
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in my undercover pieces
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is "Spirit Child."
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It was about children who were born with deformities,
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and their parents felt that once they were born
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with those deformities,
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they were not good enough to live in the society,
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so they were given some concoction to take
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and as a result they died.
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So I built a prosthetic baby,
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and I went into the village,
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pretended as though this baby had been born
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with a deformity, and here was the guys who do the killing.
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They got themselves ready.
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In their bids to kill, I got the police on standby,
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and they came that fateful morning
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to come and kill the child.
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I recall how they were seriously boiling the concoction.
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They put it on fire. It was boiling hot,
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getting ready to give to the kids.
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Whilst this was going on, the police I had alerted,
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they were on standby,
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and just as the concoction was ready,
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and they were about to give it to the kids,
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I phoned the police,
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and fortunately they came and busted them.
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As I speak now, they are before the courts.
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Don't forget the key principles:
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naming, shaming and jailing.
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The court process is taking place,
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and I'm very sure at the end of the day
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we will find them, and we will put them
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where they belong too.
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Another key story that comes to mind,
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which relates to this spirit child phenomenon,
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is "The Spell of the Albinos."
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I'm sure most of you may have heard, in Tanzania,
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children who are born with albinism
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are sometimes considered as being unfit
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to live in society.
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Their bodies are chopped up with machetes
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and are supposed to be used for some concoctions
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or some potions for people to get money --
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or so many, many stories people would tell about it.
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It was time to go undercover again.
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So I went undercover as a man who was interested
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in this particular business, of course.
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Again, a prosthetic arm was built.
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For the first time, I filmed on hidden camera
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the guys who do this, and they were ready to buy the arm
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and they were ready to use it to prepare
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those potions for people.
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I am glad today the Tanzanian government has taken action,
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but the key issue is that the Tanzanian government
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could only take action because the evidence was available.
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My journalism is about hard core evidence.
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If I say you have stolen, I show you the evidence
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that you have stolen.
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I show you how you stole it
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and when, or what you used
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what you had stolen to do.
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What is the essence of journalism if it doesn't benefit society?
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My kind of journalism is a product
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of my society.
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I know that sometimes
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people have their own criticisms
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about undercover journalism.
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(Video) Official: He brought out some money from his pockets
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and put it on the table,
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so that we should not be afraid.
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He wants to bring the cocoa and send it to Cote d'Ivoire.
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So with my hidden intention, I kept quiet.
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I didn't utter a word.
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But my colleagues didn't know.
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So after collecting the money,
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when he left, we were waiting for him to bring the goods.
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Immediately after he left, I told my colleagues that
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since I was the leader of the group,
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I told my colleagues that if they come,
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we will arrest them.
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Second official: I don't even know the place called [unclear].
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I've never stepped there before.
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So I'm surprised.
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You see a hand counting money just in front of me.
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The next moment, you see the money in my hands,
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counting, whereas I have not come into contact with anybody.
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I have not done any business with anybody.
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Reporter: When Metro News contacted investigative reporter
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Anas Aremeyaw Anas for his reaction,
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he just smiled and gave this video extract
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he did not use in the documentary recently shown onscreen.
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The officer who earlier denied involvement
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pecks a calculator to compute the amount of money
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they will charge on the cocoa to be smuggled.
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Anas Aremeyaw Anas: This was another story on anticorruption.
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And here was him, denying.
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But you see, when you have the hard core evidence,
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you are able to affect society.
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Sometimes these are some of the headlines that come. (Music)
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[I will curse Anas to death]
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[Anas Lies]
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[Alarm Blows Over Anas' News for Cash Video]
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[Agenda Against Top CEPS Officials Exposed]
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[Anas Operates with Invisible Powers?]
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[Gov't Wobbles Over Anas Video]
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[Hunting the Hunter]
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[Anas 'Bribe' Men in Court]
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[15 Heads Roll Over Anas Tape]
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[Finance Minister Backs Anas]
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[11 Given Queries Over Anas' Story]
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[GJA Stands By Anas]
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[Prez. Mills Storms Tema Harbour Over Anas Video]
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["Late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills: Former president of Ghana"]
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John Evans Atta Mills: What Anas says
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is not something which is unknown to many of us,
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but please, those of you who are agents,
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and who are leading the customs officers into temptation,
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I'm telling you, Ghana is not going to say
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any good things to you about this.
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AAA: That was my president.
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I thought that I couldn't come here
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without giving you something special.
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I have a piece, and I'm excited that
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I'm sharing it for the first time with you here.
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I have been undercover in the prisons.
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I have been there for a long time.
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And I can tell you, what I saw is not nice.
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But again, I can only affect society
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and affect government if I bring out the hard core evidence.
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Many times, the prison authorities have denied
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ever having issues of drug abuse,
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issues of sodomy, so many issues they would deny
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that it ever happens.
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How can you obtain the hard core evidence?
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So I was in the prison. ["Nsawan Prison"]
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Now, what you are seeing is a pile of dead bodies.
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Now, I happen to have followed one of my inmates,
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one of my friends, from his sick bed till death,
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and I can tell you it was not a nice thing at all.
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There were issues of bad food being served
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as I recall that some of the food I ate
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is just not good for a human being.
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Toilet facilities: very bad.
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I mean, you had to queue to get proper toilets to attend --
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and that's what I call proper,
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when four of us are on a manhole.
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It is something that if you narrate it to somebody,
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the person wouldn't believe it.
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The only way that you can let the person believe
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is when you show hard core evidence.
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Of course, drugs were abundant.
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It was easier to get cannabis, heroin and cocaine,
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faster even, in the prison than outside the prison.
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Evil in the society is an extreme disease.
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If you have extreme diseases,
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you need to get extreme remedies.
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My kind of journalism might not fit in other continents
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or other countries,
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but I can tell you, it works in my part of the continent
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of Africa, because usually, when people talk
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about corruption, they ask, "Where is the evidence?
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Show me the evidence."
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I say, "This is the evidence."
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And that has aided in me putting a lot of people behind bars.
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You see, we on the continent are able
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to tell the story better because we face the conditions
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and we see the conditions.
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That is why I was particularly excited
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when we launched our "Africa Investigates" series
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where we investigated a lot of African countries.
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As a result of the success of the "Africa Investigates" series,
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we are moving on to World Investigates.
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By the end of it, a lot more bad guys
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on our continent will be put behind bars.
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This will not stop.
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I'm going to carry on with this kind of journalism,
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because I know that when evil men destroy,
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good men must build and bind.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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Chris Anderson: Thank you. Thank you.
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I have some questions for you.
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How did you end up in jail? This was just a few weeks ago, I believe, yeah?
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AAA: Sure. You know, undercover is all about
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setting the priorities right, so we got people
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to take me to court.
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So I went through the very legal process,
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because at the end of the day, the prison authorities
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want to check whether indeed you have been there or not,
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and that's how I got in there.
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CA: So someone sued you in court,
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and they took you there, and you were in remand custody
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for part of it, and you did that deliberately.
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AAA: Yes, yes.
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CA: Talk to me just about fear
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and how you manage that,
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because you're regularly putting your life at risk.
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How do you do that?
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AAA: You see, undercover is always a last resort.
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Before we go undercover, we follow the rules.
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And I'm only comfortable and I'm purged of fear
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whenever I am sure that all the steps
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have been taken. I don't do it alone. I have a backup team
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who help ensure that the safety and all the systems
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are put in place, but you've got to take
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very intelligent decisions whenever they are happening.
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If you don't, you will end up losing your life.
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So yes, when the backup systems are put in place,
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I'm okay, I go in. Risky, yes,
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but it's a hazard of a profession.
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I mean, everybody has their hazard.
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And once you say that is yours,
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you've got to take it, as and when it comes.
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CA: Well, you're an amazing human and you've done amazing work
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and you've taught us a story
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like no story I think any of us have heard before.
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And we're appreciative. We salute you. Thank you so much, Anas.
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AAA: Thank you.
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CA: Thank you. Stay safe. (Applause)
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