Foreign journalists’ experiences from the field

“Almost everyone in India encounters corruption”

Most journalists working for English language media in India are based in the cities, and they have access to establishment people. But there are dozens of regional languages and the journalists working in them are from less privileged backgrounds. Their pay is also much lower by comparison.

The status of journalists is also divided within their communities. Corrupt people in positions of power avoid them, while their own communities appreciate them.

Almost everybody in India faces corruption, and in most major elections corruption is an important electoral issue.

Last year, I went around Central India with my colleague, examining cases where journalists who investigated corruption were killed. The son of a murdered Indian journalist told me that his father’s highly regarded crusade against corruption had been rewarded with bullets.

Reporters’ lives may be at risk if they report on corruption. Their deaths are not investigated and so the killers are not brought to account.

If you report on politics or religion, you’ll often face harassment. Women journalists are more at risk of being harassed, and may even get rape or death threats on social media. There have been scores of such incidents recently. The Network for Women in Media, India http://www.nwmindia.org/ has diligently issued statements condemning each such incident.

There‘s very little protection for sources in India, and often a source will decide to put his or her faith in a journalist if the journalist seems credible.

I have been fortunate to work with the kinds of chief editors who have stood by me when we decided to make a source anonymous. I write stories about vulnerable groups in society – the poor, tribespeople, the landless, women. When sources share their stories, it impacts on power structures and so in some places it is vital to protect them.

With some of my stories, I have changed the names of sources and other information that might reveal their identity. Sometimes you’ll have stories where it’s important that you don’t reveal the whereabouts of a source. Then I’ll go with my phone off and not call the source but use a messenger, and so on.

My advice to journalists coming here is to spend as much time in India as possible. If they are accustomed to speaking to four different sources for a thousand-character story, I’d advise them to double that number when here.

Raksha Kumar is an Indian freelance journalist. Kumar’s reportage has been published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and by the BBC.

 

“Fear is a healthy sign, but you mustn’t let it take control”

There are a number if undemocratic, authoritarian regimes in power in Africa, where information is controlled. The work of journalists is restricted and armed conflicts further complicate the situation. Journalists’ work in these parts is obviously difficult and entails risk. When going on assignment to such areas you must pay special attention to your own safety. As we say, dead journalists don’t file reports

Things rarely go precisely according to plan. Thinking of alternative courses of action will give you plenty of room for manoeuvre. It’s important to prepare by hiring a local fixer, as their practical knowledge is invaluable. A fixer is a local person who assists journalists navigate unfamiliar environments and provide interpretation as necessary. You can find a fixer through colleagues, local journalists, NGOs operating locally, or for instance Finns living in the area.

When we were doing travel reportage in Mogadishu, we stayed in a closely guarded area behind concrete walls and barbed wire, and when we were on the move we were protected by a group of paid armed guards. This may have been safer but such extensive security arrangements also attract a lot of attention and can sometimes be counter productive. Another approach is to keep as low profile as possible and blend

in with the crowd, which is what I’ve tried doing on such trips. Extreme situations are of course rare, but every so often journalists are kidnapped, beaten up, and killed.

The best tip for getting sources is to get to know the NGOs operating locally and local journalists as they have a comprehensive understanding of the situation in the area. You can also get contacts through NGOs and ideas on places worth visiting. Security is the big issue to do with working with sources. For instance, in Somalia you can’t just interview passers-by on the street, and anyone speaking to a Western journalist may run into problems.

It’s the responsibility of the journalist not to endanger contacts and sources. When I do interviews I usually have two notepads, one of which is just a decoy in case my note-taking things are confiscated. I stuff the actual notes out of sight down my boxers. Photographers also often have two memory cards with them on a trip, one of which contains only generic shots not intended for publication.

I’ve been afraid in some working situations. Fear is a healthy sign, but you mustn’t let it take control. Often you find that the most disagreeable sounding countries are anything but disagreeable. The worst can happen even crossing the street in Helsinki. The likelihood that it will is about the same as being caught up in a terrorist attack in Nairobi.

Sami Sillanpää is a foreign affairs journalist at Helsingin Sanomat and has headed its foreign desk. In 2015, he was the paper’s correspondent in Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

“One time I pretended to be a nurse “

I originally ended up in Brazil by chance when I made a two-day stop over on my way to Argentina. It felt like there was a change happening in the country, which I didn’t know enough about. I wanted to find out more about the country’s history, culture and the unfolding social transformation.

The first time I went to do a story in a Brazilian favela, or poor district, I was dressed in a floral dress and beach sandals. I ran into a Brazilian TV reporter, who was riding in an armoured car, dressed in a bulletproof vest and helmet. He looked at me as if to say: “Do you know where you are?”.

It’s easier for foreign journalists to get around in Brazil than local ones. The topics of the stories matter, of course. It’s a different thing to write about the sewage system in a favela for a foreign newspaper than for a local journalist to do an investigative piece about organised crime. I know local journalists who have had to leave the country for a while due to threats.

Of course, there are also risks for foreign journalists, and they vary a lot depending on the area. A country and a city can contain many different realities. I did a story once about parts of the Venezuelan capital Caracas run by paramilitary gangs. Some of my questions angered them and they started demanding to

know if we were for or against the revolution. I tried to argue that I was just doing a story objectively, but of course they weren’t having it. Things became pretty heated, until my Italian photographer lifted his shirt to show the gang members the Che Guevara tattoo he had on his stomach. That eased the situation.

You can survive many tough situations by openly saying what you’re doing. But under the Guidelines for Journalists it’s permissible not to declare your profession when you’re in situations where you can’t otherwise get information that’s in the public interest. One time in Venezuela I pretended to be a nurse to members of the National Guard because foreign reporters were refused entry to a hospital. But once I was inside the hospital I explained to people I interviewed who I was what I was doing.

Protecting your sources is a crucial part of the job. The level of protection depends on the topic, the country, and the situation of the source. When you’re interviewing dissidents you have to think carefully about how to agree on the interviews, as communications may be monitored. Local journalists and fixers can be a great help in finding contacts for interviews. A cell phone is sometimes handy when on a story, as it won’t necessarily arouse the same interest and annoyance as a video camera and notebook. On returning from a gig I straightaway put all the information that’s on my cell phone someplace safer.

Journalists going abroad are often given masses of precautionary instructions, and it’s important to take notice of them. But in the end it all comes down to whether people want to share their stories with you. It requires winning people’s trust, keeping an open mind, and being patient.

Maria Manner is a foreign affairs journalist for Helsingin Sanomat. In 2014 she was the paper’s correspondent in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.