Being a foreign correspondent is a fascinating job, which many desiderate. You get to be the envy of the people back home, in a foreign land that becomes a new home to you, at least for a while. You get to watch history unfold, and furthermore, you get to have an influence on how it …
Monthly Archive: April 2012
Apr 26 2012
People Like Us
Today I interviewed Sunday Telegraph foreign correspondent Nick Meo as part of our GRNLive Interviews series. Nick has reported for GRNLive from Egypt, Libya, Norway and anywhere else his work sent him over the last few years. It was a very interesting and enjoyable conversation for me and hopefully for those of you who watch it. GRNLive’s …
Apr 18 2012
Reporting on Trial
The Trial of Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik, who killed, by his own admission, 77 people in a well planned attack, stirred an extensive debate about different aspects of its media coverage. Some commentators have gone as far as to say that Breivik should not be put on trial at all, as it would enable him …
Apr 12 2012
Bread, Circuses and News
Guardian Media reports today that human rights activists in Bahrain are calling on the BBC and Sky to boycott the Formula 1 race planned to take place in the country on 22 April. Zainab al-Khawaja, daughter of hunger striking imprisoned activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, told the Guardian “If the Formula One does come to Bahrain, …
Apr 03 2012
What is a reporter?
Simone de Beauvoir famously said “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”. Recently I’ve heard a veteran editor paraphrase the very opposite about news reporters. “Either you are it or you are not. News reporters are a species”, she said. The remark was made flippantly but I remembered having similar thoughts when I …