'They were planning to kill me, it was really bad'

Ten years ago, a 14-year-old Kenyan schoolgirl set her heart on becoming a journalist.

Even as a teenager, Fatuma Noor could see there were stories which were not being told – and she wanted to share them with the world.

But last year, in her bid to tell just one such story, she found herself kidnapped and her life under threat. After eight hours she was released and not only managed to tell the story she set out to, but this year was awarded the top prize at the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist awards for her work.

Her three-part investigative documentary followed the stories of a group of young men travelling to Somalia to fight for the country's Islamist group Al-Shabaab.

"I travelled with them from Nairobi to Somalia to get their stories as to why they were coming back, who's telling them to come back, what are they fighting for?," she told Journalism.co.uk.

"At first it was a bit hard because they had issues trusting me. I spent a lot of time and finally they trusted me. But once we got to the ground it was much harder because their Islamist group had a problem because I was a woman and they said I was not supposed to be travel with a man who you're not related to."

In a terrifying development, Noor was kidnapped and held for eight hours. "They were planning to kill me but finally I was released. It was messed up, It was really bad."

But despite her horrific experience, she is adamant the situation for the media in Somalia is improving. And, in particular, stories are coming out of the country and informing the rest of the world.

"Journalists have a lot more opportunity for sending stories outside Somalia compared to how it was in the past. But it is also a challenge for them, because you have to be careful about what you write. You can't just go and write anything ... For Somali journalists it is a bit hard but they are trying to get the story out there, or rather the international media is trying to get in Somalia and tell their stories."

And in Kenya, her home country and that of last year's winner of the CNN MultiChoice award, she also feels the way journalists are telling stories is improving "day-by-day".

"People get to tell their story in depth and investigate more," she added.

For Noor her passion for journalism started as a child, spurred on by the lack of other women reporters covering Somalia.

"I decided to be a journalist when I was about 14. I had just cleared my primary education. I loved writing.

"There weren't a lot of Somali woman journalists, actually there were none at the time so I thought I should do it. There were a lot of stories that needed to be told, but they were not telling it.

"Maybe because of the language barrier or other reasons, but a lot of stories were not coming up. So that's why I decided to become a journalist."

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