Impressions of Reuters

Further to the item published by The Baron on 27 November headlined: Meg Bortin changes the names ‘to protect the guilty’, some readers may be surprised, or shocked, when reading her well-written memoir.

Let each one make up his own mind.

I’d just like to point out two quotes, not about Meg’s personal life, the main subject of the book, but about her impressions of Reuters when with the company. She was employed in Paris, London and Moscow from 1982-1988. 

Meg is American and I’m French.

Perhaps it’s because we are not British that her words struck a chord with me because this is exactly how I felt during my time at Reuters.

Meg wrote (p 228):

“Working on Fleet Street was a thrill that didn’t wear off. Each time I entered the historic Reuters building, across the street from The Daily Telegraph and a stone’s throw from the Daily Express, I felt the same frisson. How many great correspondents had arrived from afar to pass through these doors, sometimes after risking their lives to get a story? I was proud to be in the company of these professionals, whose work could bring to light important hidden truths.”

Meg also recounts (p 231) how she worked on World Desk on 28 January 1986 when the US Challenger space shuttle exploded shortly after take-off from Cape Kennedy. World Desk staffers, herself included, were watching TV screens when the drama happened.

Meg writes:

“As this human drama unfolded we were madly writing bulletins and urgents and putting them out on the wire. We may have felt like weeping as we banged out the copy, but no emotion was on display. It wouldn’t have been right. After all, Reuters was British.” 

I’ve been retired for over 12 years and am absolutely delighted to be so. But, as naïve as it may sound, I’m still intensely proud to have worked for the Family News Agency during some of its best glory years.

"On the other hand, when I retired - at a time the company was starting to seriously change - I told the office going-away party (colleagues laughed, but I can still see the bosses frown): “I prefer to have 32 years of Reuters behind me, rather than 32 years of Reuters ahead of me.” ■