January 03, 2003
How Good Reporting Happens
The Christian Science Monitor occasionally runs a small feature entitled Reporters on the Job in which one of its correspondents describes the experiences he or she encountered while reporting a story.
Today, Arie Farnam, a freelance writer in Eastern Europe, recounts her successful attempt to locate and interview a Romany leader about the maltreatment of his people in Slovakia:
"The kids shoved me into a chair and stood back while the woman interrogated me. Who was I? Why had I come? What did I know about Mr. David? Who had sent me? she wanted to know. Her tone was aggressive, propped up by fear, and I knew that I was on shaky ground but I could do nothing except answer truthfully and calmly. After we had been through the questions about five times in my slightly wobbly Slovak, she finally sent one of the children down to the floor below us, where he produced Mr. David."
Good reporting happens when reporters don't give up.
Links
Reporters on the Job Arie Farnam
Slovakian Roma forced to ghettos The story Farnam wrote
Christian Science Monitor