Gordon Martin blackballed in Madrid

Gordon Martin’s time with Reuters was highlighted by his unforgettable graphic eyewitness report on the Indian invasion of Goa, then a Portuguese enclave, in 1961. In Madrid, where I was Reuters bureau chief and he was the BBC correspondent in the 70s, we had adjoining offices in the building of the Spanish news agency EFE. One day Gordon came to me with a pained look and a ping pong ball that had been painted black which had been left outside his door. He had been “blackballed” by some foreign correspondents playing table tennis in the corridor because he had complained to EFE about the noise. Patrick Smith, the BBC correspondent in Rome in the 60s, was more at home with gadgets and put up a red light outside his office in the building of the Italian news agency ANSA. It blinked when he was taping a broadcast, warning everyone to walk softly on their way to the toilet.  ■