Journalism has many purposes, this is one of them...

It's not the publishing. It's not the finished product pretty and complete. It's asking questions – lots of them, and being impartial. It's curiosity and listening to the everyday story that lives in the streets of every town, and then gathering the information like a spy, but further reporting it to the people who matter. The people who need to know.

Tonight I stood in a bar with the Deputy Secretary of a Human Rights Society, who had called me as word had got around that I was interested in the story of innocent people who had been victims to torture. My phone rang, it was the family of the victim of torture I had met four days previous. He wanted to say goodbye and to invite me to dinner in the village.

I passed the phone to my drinking partner. They spoke for a few minutes. The phone was passed back to me. He thanked me again. I hung up. I had made a connection between a man who was desparate for advice, and someone who could help. The outcome of the series of events that I have been party to on my trip to Bahrain is as follows:

A family who had been so scared and lost over where to go will now receive medical help from the society. And another case of torture will be registered that will add to the campaign against the government to offer some real kind of reconciliation. These families, and there are many, are lost over how to deal with the stigma and fear of coming forward and seeking real help.

A doctor will go to the village and visit the victim. The case will be assesed. The government will not publish all cases, and this is another step towards these cases being aired. Hopefully the society will be able to aid with medicince through the volentary medical teams they have working on their programmes.

The Human Rights friend, said that he may now even put an advertisement in the newspaper callinng for all torture victims to come forward and get the help that they didn't know existed, and with a dilay newspaper now running a daily campaign on the subject,which started this month, it is finally being aired, and the government can not ignore it anymore.

The fact that these victims can now get help – recent development since 2001 – means that a mood is changing. The main problem is the stigma attached to seeking psychiatric help. Trauma is sometimes harder to see than the physical disability. Another case to add to the campaign and a person who will at long last get some recognition and the medicare he needs.

This the real joy in reporting, is reporting the stories to the people who matter.