The Aurora Prize seeks to raise awareness of the world’s most pressing issues. How do you think that should be done?
Aurora Prize has become a story. What is a story? It’s something important taking place that people should be aware of. What I think is special about Aurora is that this is a flower that is just beginning to blossom, but it is a flower, because it is bringing hope to the world.
There are organizations that are doing what I call God's work – capital G. These organizations are doing God's work, and they will do it wherever there is a crisis, wherever there is poverty, wherever there is misery, wherever there is devastation. The organizations will crop up and begin addressing those problems of the world and individual neighborhoods. What Aurora does in its work is promoting and publicizing these groups, and that is wonderful. Those people are hard at work and can never even put their heads up to draw a breath, and that is being recognized and appreciated. That is a wonderful thing that Aurora does. It shows the world’s appreciation to these very important organizations.
But there is a second thing that comes with that, and that is hope. Hope is the most important emotion for the world’s survival, because it gets us up in the morning believing today will be a new day and a better day. That’s what hope does. Aurora is bringing attention to the organizations that are bringing hope to the world. It is saying, if you help your fellow men, the people in trouble, whether they are refugees or survivors of a genocide, we will give you recognition.
Without those groups being promoted people will not respond in a good way, so I think Aurora is helping make the world a slightly better place. The more recognition they get, the more coverage they get, the more media attention they get, the better it is for these organizations that do the God's work.
Nowadays there is a certain amount of distrust towards media and organizations. What we can do to change it?
I disagree. The media that I believe in, from The New York Times down to the local paper that covers Dilijan, is working with reporters who are trained on being fair and thorough. If there is something bad going on, they know to dig deeper, to try to figure out, “is someone doing something wrong that I do not immediately see?”
The media has an important role in improving these situations. The best way it does its work is by keeping the public's credibility, the trust in that what they are writing is honest and accurate. We would like the world to be a better place, we would like media to expose people who are not doing good things but if we don’t do it in a right way, comprehensively, fairly and thoroughly, then people are going to lose the trust in media. We shouldn’t misuse that trust by going after every person who someone gives us a tip on, without the info, without the facts. We need to base our articles on facts. It must be thorough and convincing to the public.
Who are the changemakers able to solve the humanitarian issues? What role can the media play?
I think we all have a role in that. We are all citizens. Let’s use the refugee crisis as an example. We do not end the coverage with the refugees’ plight and sadness. We cannot end the story, our coverage, there. We must show what the powers are, what the major parties are in the conflict, why they are in. That's ridiculous that this issue, this crisis has continued for five or six years. That should never have happened this long.
Do you have any people you would like to nominate for the next year’s Aurora Prize?
I have read about many organizations that are doing such positive work with homelessness, with plague, with hunger. Every country has an organization that is dealing with these issues. And I came away feeling very good. It is important to complete the circle of Aurora, the circle of giving, the promotion of these organizations.