Bonus: The Global Story - A Gazan journalist's diary

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Reporting on the war in Gaza has only been possible because of the work of Palestinian journalists, because the Israeli government will not let foreign broadcasters – including the BBC – inside the territory to report freely, even now a ceasefire is in place. One month ago, freelance journalist Ghada Al-Kurd began sharing voice notes with us, talking about her life, her hopes, her family, and her days reporting in Gaza City. Her job is dangerous – almost 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the past two years – and even with a ceasefire in place, safety is far from reach. Ghada has continued to report for us through her displacements, sharing her treasured memories of pre-war Gaza, and her fears and hopes for its future.

Image: Ghada Al Kurd

With Asma Khalid in DC, Tristan Redman in London, and the backing of the BBC’s international newsroom, The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.0	Hey there, I'm Asma Khalid.
0:08.0	And I'm Tristan Redmond, and we're here with a bonus episode for you from the Global Story podcast.
0:13.0	The world order is shifting. Old alliances are fraying and new ones are emerging.
0:19.0	Some of this turbulence can be traced to decisions made in the United States.
0:23.8	But the U.S. isn't just a cause of the upheaval.
0:27.0	Its politics are also a symptom of it.
0:30.2	Every day we focus on one story, looking at how America and the world shape each other.
0:35.6	So we hope you enjoy this episode.
0:37.4	And to find more of our
0:39.1	show, just search for the global story wherever you get your BBC podcasts. It's been a week now
0:47.8	since the ceasefire in Gaza was announced. The bombs have stopped for now. And so we wanted to
0:53.4	find out how people in Gaza are feeling now that the initial elation of the ceasefire has passed.
0:59.4	And we specifically wanted to know what life has been like for Palestinian journalists who have been living through this war while also covering it these last two years.
1:09.4	And so we are going to do something a little different
1:11.3	for today's episode. Over the past month, our colleague Hannah Moore, one of the producers on
1:16.6	this show, has been calling up Rada Al-Court. She's a freelance journalist from Gaza City,
1:22.2	and she's reported for the BBC and other news outlets. Normally, the BBC would send our foreign correspondence into war zones, but that hasn't been
1:31.6	possible in this conflict because the Israeli government has blocked international media
1:35.8	from going into Gaza independently.
1:38.7	We talked a little bit about this on Monday's episode with the BBC's chief international correspondent, Leicthussette.
1:45.3	The media watchdog groups, the association of journalists, including the Foreign Press
	...

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