The Line of Fire with Ramita Navai
Janine di Giovanni : I had been told this before that they would just assassinate me because they didn’t want any witnesses
Episode notes
This week we are joined by multi award-winning author, journalist, and war correspondent Janine di Giovanni. She tells Ramita about escaping a Chechen village as it was encircled by Russian tanks and bombed by helicopter gunships after she entered the country illegally to report on the fall of Grozny.
As well as describing how she survived many terrifying situations while reporting from the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Janine recounts how she became a journalist, despite not wanting to be one.
In her frank and honest interview, she also speaks of finding love on the battlefield, the challenges of being a female war reporter, and being part of the first PTSD study of the effect of war on journalists.
Show Notes:
- Janine’s book The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East
- Janine’s memoir Ghosts By Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love
- @janinedigi