He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata!

A Māori proverb asks, What is the most important thing in the world? To which it answers: It is people, it is people, it is people. I am a journalist from Aotearoa New Zealand and this is my approach to storytelling.

An abhorrence of human suffering has guided my reporting on war, disaster, and human rights abuses, with my focus always on the civilians who pay the highest price. I have covered conflicts on three continents, writing first drafts of history during the Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The stories that have stayed with me often involved children harmed in war. I’ll never forget the pained faces of Tabarak and Shahar, two sisters horrifically injured in an IED explosion in Mosul that killed their two other sisters. In the desert outside Mosul, I remember the size of the grave Hazem Meshal dug for his niece, two foot by one foot, just big enough for the tiny unnamed newborn swaddled tight in a shroud. I recall the too-big clothing 12-year-old Mohammed wore as he scavenged for food in the frigid desert outside the final scrap of ISIS-held territory in Baghouz: an orphaned boy alone in a world fought over by violent men.

One of my investigations revealed that the British government was funding Syrian prisons holding hundreds of children indefinitely without charge because of their perceived affiliation with ISIS. A UN special rapporteur and legal experts told me this was illegal under international law, which is perhaps why the British government refused to answer my questions about its involvement in these ‘black hole’ prisons. My reporting on this was shortlisted for the 2022 Luchetta Prize for international reporting on children's rights.

I have interviewed leaders at pivotal moments, like being the first Western journalist to meet Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani after he announced an ill-fated secession bid from Iraq in 2017. As the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, I gained a first interview with Ahmed Massoud – the son of the legendary Lion of Panjshir – as he vowed to fight the Taliban ‘to the last breath’ (he sued for peace three days later). In Sudan, the warlord Hemedti hand-fed me orange segments as he sought to convince me that he was the protector of the country’s democratic transition.

I have been a staff correspondent for The Telegraph, an editor for Agence France-Presse, and have freelanced for leading publications in the US, UK and Canada. When covering moving news stories I file text, photos and video – sometimes all in one day – while also giving radio and television lives. But wherever possible I prefer to spend more time with people in order to do justice to their stories.

I work hard to bridge the profound gap between audience and subject, always looking for the details that reveal our shared commonality. To convey the nuance of a diverse world without exoticising or relying on worn tropes also requires the collaboration of excellent local journalists and producers, to whom I am always eager to give credit.

Throughout my travels I have found joy in hearing and retelling the stories of regular people living extraordinary lives. I have hunted for desert truffles with militiamen in Syria, preened with the Kurdish dandies who launched Iraq’s first fashion club and rocked out with a heavy metal band in Kirkuk.

I love running, up to 100 miles at a time, over hill, over dale. I am currently a 3.01 marathoner, working on filling that unforgiving minute.

After living in the Middle East for over a decade, I moved to Canada with my wife in 2023. I am still working on international reporting projects and am available for commissions.

If you would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you.

campbell.macdiarmid@gmail.com

+1 (343) 2048914