Freelancers tell tales of high danger and low pay at Club conference

Freelancers and groups supporting them told a Club audience Thursday of the dangers and lack of preparation in their international reporting, often at low pay.

The morning-long conference, "Freelancers at Risk: Photojournalism and the Call for Global Safety Practices," was sponsored by the Club's Journalism Institute along with the Investigative Reporting Workshop and the Committee to Protect journalists. One of the guests was Diane Foley, whose son, freelance journalist James Foley, was captured while covering the Syria civil war and beheaded last August.

The participants said little about the risks the freelancers face from the combatants they are covering, but rather other dangers from working abroad.

Elisa Lees Munoz of the International Women's Media Foundation told of a study that showed one woman correspondent in four has been raped while in the field -- and often the sexual assaults are committed "by people they know, like their drivers or 'fixers.'"

Lily Hindy of Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues said most deaths among correspondents in combat situations occur from bleeding, and lives could have been saved if colleagues know what to do. She said RISC has trained 215 correspondents in recent years in security and survival practices.

Much of the discussion had to do with the low pay that freelancer photographers earn, which several of them agreed was the single largest challenge they face. Hindy said one young photographer got $25 for a photo taken in a combat situation. She said that after a survey RISC proposed a base scale of $700 a day and $1.50 a word. Other participants pointed out that out of the $700, the correspondent must pay for a hotel as well as fees to a driver and fixer.

There was agreement that local freelancers -- often stringers -- are the biggest casualties of lack of training and low pay. There also was agreement that editors need to go to the field and work with their correspondents to get a better feeling for combat conditions.

And there was agreement that there must be better training and preparation before the freelancers take on assignments.

Ron Haviv, a veteran photographer, said newer correspondents often have "lack an ability to protect one's self and a lack of ... not realizing what the dangers are." Haviv said dangers to correspondents had become greater since the combatants now have access to satellite television and when they are not happy with the coverage, he said, "we sort of became the targets."

Munoz said the Women's Foundation is preparing a computer program that would outline a security protocol, safety practices and even an SOS that would allow editors to track their correspondents who are out of direct contact.