| by Pearl Thevanayagam
(April 29 2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Fifteen aid workers in the East were killed in 2009 during the escalating war but none of them were foreigners. BBC stringer Nimalarajan was killed in 2000 but not a single BBC correspondent was harmed in Sri Lanka during their postings. Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times survived with one blind eye in 2001 for venturing into LTTE territory but her security man was murdered. There was no inquiry nor his death investigated. Colvin's death in Syria several weeks ago does not mitigate the fact that impoverished journalists with scant protection are fodder for enemy fire.
Journalists who fled to the West are just testimonies for the NGOs purporting to champion exiled journalists and are paraded on stage to procure funds on their behalf. UK's Refugee Council has an entire British staff who are paid more than an average government employee and refugee volunteers who perform the same task are paid just travel and a lunch-time voucher for less than a meagre £5.00. The Refugee Council is funded by the Home Office which has an agenda to deport as many asylum seekers as possible.
Be wary of speaking to big-time news agencies such as Reuters or BBC. They are out to ferret out crucial information and take the credit leaving you, the true mine of information, redundant. Just log on to BBC and you will see a note at the end of a story requesting you to write about when a story broke out and whether you were there. You are not paid but the BBC correspondent gets a fat fee for the information you provided.
A Reuters photographer from Colombo arrived in the UK seeking asylum a few years ago. Reuters refused to give him support with his asylum claim and he was detained in Cardiff with his wife and children for over two years.
A BBC correspondent from Cameroon was let down by the BBC in London and he is now suffering from life-threatening kidney disease after he returned to Cameroon when his asylum claim was rejected by the Home Office UK. Another BBC correspondent from Sierra Leone worked for many years as bus conductor before finally finding a slot at BBC World Service as a casual contract employee.
It is no secret that interpreters for aid agencies and news agencies place their lives on the line and have absolutely no insurance as was reported from Afghanistan in recent times.
They key to surviving as an exile is to with-hold information until you are guaranteed handsome pay. In short, don't sell yourself short.
The writer is Asia Pacific Journalism Fellow at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, California and a print journalist for 21 years. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)
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