Listen to the following
podcast from CBC radio’s The Current:
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20130207_85614.mp3
1. What happened when Rick Findler, freelance photographer, tried to submit
photographs to the Sunday Times? Why would the Sunday Times take this position?
How does Findler feel about it?
First of all, before Mr. Findler went into
Syria the newspaper said that it was an idiotic mission. The Sunday Times did
not take the pictures and copy due to that they do not want to encourage
freelancers taking exceptional risks. Findler felt a bit sad when the paper did
not take his partners and his work since they had published their work earlier.
However, he can see where they are coming from with this and he knows that they
have a moral concern to take into consideration when working with freelancers
work. If the reporter as well gets killed then there are some legal attachments
that the paper has to deal with.
2. Who insures photographers like Findler? Do a little research about this
organization and write down what you find out.
He holds himself solely responsible for whatever
happens to him and would only blame himself in the case of an accident or something
else. “Reporters without Borders” (RWB) insure
men and women like Findler. RWB is a France-based international non-profit,
non-governmental organization that has consultant status at the United Nations.
They promote and defend freedom of the press and freedom of information.
3. What is at stake for those who consume the news reported by freelancers
like Findler? What does he say about this? What do you think? Is the work of
freelancers important? Why?
It diminishes their audience. The readers
have to be aware of the truth since the freelancers’ mission is to tell the
world about what is actually going on. The audience is relatively small since
there are not many newspapers that want to publish freelancers´ work (as seen
in one of the questions here above).
I feel that freelancers are doing a great
job. They are risking their lives to tell the world about places and conflicts
around the world and for me I do not see anything negative in that if the
person himself/herself has decided that he/she honestly wants to risk their
life during their job. I only think this if they are truly objective about the
situation and conflict so that we the readers can create our own opinion.
4. Who was Marie Colvin? Find out more about her, what conflicts she was
engaged in covering and how/why she was killed.
Marie Colvin was a war correspondent and she
has been located in for example Syria and Afghanistan. She has spent more than
20 years for the Sunday Times newspaper and she was fearless in the on ground
conflict zones. Miss Colvin was killed in her job last year (22 February 2012) during
an attack in the city Homs in Syria. It was the Syrian Army who killed both her
and her French photographer. In the year of 2001 she lost an eye in Sri Lanka
and was known for wearing a black eye patch ever since. Her funeral was held in
New York on the 12th March 2012.
5. 5. Why is the
media’s position on this issue hypocritical?
Sadly, many freelancers are “naked”, they do not have any insurance, they
have not been trained for different situations and they should be able to know
exactly what to do or go when the time or other aspects tell them to do so. Freelancers
risk their own lives every minute when reporting live from conflict zones and
they should get money and insurances for that. They are there
to report on world news, not to be denied when trying to tell them to the rest
of the world.
6. 6. What are the pros and cons of
hiring freelancers “on the ground” to cover conflict?
The pros are that they report on the real and true conflict being on place
close to the area in question. There are chances that these on ground
freelancers can be bias, since they often origin from the area of the conflict
and therefor might already have an opinion and this can be seen as a con.
