Courage of locally-hired journalists

Congratulations and kudos to Tehran bureau chief Parisa Hafezi for winning an international award for courage in her coverage of events in Iran, more so for putting her life on the line as a local journalist.

During the time we covered the bloody Sri Lankan conflict in the late 1980s to early 1990s, as locally-hired journalists we often asked ourselves: Do we put ourselves on the line? Will our families suffer? Will the company stand by us in death-defying moments?

This went through my mind while being detained for some 24 hours by Tamil Tiger guerrillas in northern Jaffna in early 1990, when the rebels controlled this northern city, during a reporting visit. I was with a Tamil journalist colleague, Manik, who had accompanied me. After a few hours of probing questions at a heavily-guarded hotel the rebels said I was free to go, but not my colleague. (Several years later I discovered the rebels had been suspicious, which was unfounded, that my colleague was a spy for a rival rebel organisation and would have executed him).

Fearing danger for my friend, I politely refused and using the strength and power of Reuters being an international organisation told them that if we were not released the world would be told how the Tigers treated a journalist and also bureau chief of an independent news organisation. That worked. A few hours later we were both released. Now, several years later, I still remember being seated in a hotel room surrounded by three gun-toting, sullen rebels and virtually shitting in my pants and scared to death (that’s the untold story)! Manik and I continue to be good friends. ■