Channel 4 News broadcaster Jon Snow has revealed how he and Bill Gates awarded a prize to one of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, months before her death.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, he revealed he met 12-year-old Firdaws Kedir at a national debating competition, and described her as a “remarkably poised hijab-wearing girl” who “used language beautifully”.
He also paid tribute to others in the tower, including artist Khadija Saye, who died with her mother, and Grenfell Action Group blogger Edward Daffarn, who survived.
During his talk on Wednesday (August 23) he said the fire exposed the media’s disconnect with ordinary people (see video above).
Mr Snow said he was “haunted” by his link to the tragedy, as he explained his connection to young Firdaws.
He was with the Microsoft co-founder at a championship organised by the charity Debate Mate on April 20 and judging he best floor speech.
He said: “I had little difficulty in deciding the winner Firdaws Kedir, a remarkably poised hijab-wearing girl from west London.
“She was confident, she used language beautifully. Bill Gates grasped her hand and gave her the award.
“On the 19th of June, a mere two months later, reporting from Grenfell, I spotted a picture of Firdaws on a missing poster.
“She and her entire family of five are believed to have been incinerated together on the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower.
“Two weeks ago it was confirmed that remnants of Firdaws and her father had indeed been found in their flat and that their identities had been confirmed using DNA.
“Firdaws had been described as the most intelligent, wise, eloquent girl. I was fortunate enough to witness that first hand and since then I often think what might she have become?
“What were her life chances once she had been picked out in this way?
“Could she have prevailed over the fractures in our society and succeeded?”
He said many of the people who lived in the building had been “casually written off as nameless migrants, scroungers, illegals and the rest”.
“Actually, and it should be no shock to us, the tower was full of talent” he said.
“Not least the wonderful and talented Khadija Saye, who died with her mother on the verge of a major breakthrough as an artist.
“Or community leaders like Eddie Daffarn who survived the inferno, but who write that warning blog on October 20 2016.
“We, the media, report the lack of diversity in other walks of life, but our own record is nothing like good enough.”
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