Feizal Samath
Courage of locally-hired journalists
Saturday 29 October 2011
Congratulations and kudos to Tehran bureau chief ● Parisa Hafezi for winning an international award for courage in her coverage of events in Iran, more so for putting her life on the line as a local journalist.
During the time we covered the bloody Sri Lankan conflict in the late 1980s to early 1990s, as locally-hired journalists we often asked ourselves: Do we put ourselves on the line? Will our families suffer? Will the company stand by us in death-defying moments?
This went through my mind while being detained for some 24 hours by Tamil Tiger guerrillas in northern Jaffna in early 1990, when the rebels controlled this northern city, during a reporting visit. I was with a Tamil journalist colleague, Manik, who had accompanied me. After a few hours of probing questions at a heavily-guarded hotel the rebels said I was free to go, but not my colleague. (Several years later I discovered the rebels had been suspicious, which was unfounded, that my colleague was a spy for a rival rebel organisation and would have executed him).
Fearing danger for my friend, I politely refused and using the strength and power of Reuters being an international organisation told them that if we were not released the world would be told how the Tigers treated a journalist and also bureau chief of an independent news organisation. That worked. A few hours later we were both released. Now, several years later, I still remember being seated in a hotel room surrounded by three gun-toting, sullen rebels and virtually shitting in my pants and scared to death (that’s the untold story)! Manik and I continue to be good friends.
Feizal Samath
Reuters journalist, later bureau chief 1985-1997
nbnbn
During the time we covered the bloody Sri Lankan conflict in the late 1980s to early 1990s, as locally-hired journalists we often asked ourselves: Do we put ourselves on the line? Will our families suffer? Will the company stand by us in death-defying moments?
This went through my mind while being detained for some 24 hours by Tamil Tiger guerrillas in northern Jaffna in early 1990, when the rebels controlled this northern city, during a reporting visit. I was with a Tamil journalist colleague, Manik, who had accompanied me. After a few hours of probing questions at a heavily-guarded hotel the rebels said I was free to go, but not my colleague. (Several years later I discovered the rebels had been suspicious, which was unfounded, that my colleague was a spy for a rival rebel organisation and would have executed him).
Fearing danger for my friend, I politely refused and using the strength and power of Reuters being an international organisation told them that if we were not released the world would be told how the Tigers treated a journalist and also bureau chief of an independent news organisation. That worked. A few hours later we were both released. Now, several years later, I still remember being seated in a hotel room surrounded by three gun-toting, sullen rebels and virtually shitting in my pants and scared to death (that’s the untold story)! Manik and I continue to be good friends.
Feizal Samath
Reuters journalist, later bureau chief 1985-1997
nbnbn
Sri Lanka
Friday 22 July 2011
What a joy to read the exchange between Feizal Samath and Brian Williams. It’s a reminder of the great bond of friendship and respect that existed – and one hopes still exists – between locally hired Reuters journalists and the colleagues who would travel in to join them in pursuit of the story. That bond always made Reuters a very special place to work. The resident local correspondents had and undoubtedly still have the tougher time in balancing the demands of the job against the obligations to family, and in facing despicable harassment and worse from various government goons, censors and thugs. Reuters could never be Reuters without people like Feizal and so many others who cover their countries for the world. May their integrity, dedication and sacrifice never be undervalued.
As an aside, I too had the distinct pleasure of staying at the Galle Face during a visit to Colombo in 2004 before the place got spruced up. The bacon and egg breakfasts were something else, as was my room, a suite so expansive that it exceeded the square footage of my Manhattan apartment. Not that anything in the room worked, or had done for the better part of half a century. That's what made it such a charming place, along with the view.
Paul Holmes
vbnbnbn
As an aside, I too had the distinct pleasure of staying at the Galle Face during a visit to Colombo in 2004 before the place got spruced up. The bacon and egg breakfasts were something else, as was my room, a suite so expansive that it exceeded the square footage of my Manhattan apartment. Not that anything in the room worked, or had done for the better part of half a century. That's what made it such a charming place, along with the view.
Paul Holmes
vbnbnbn
Sri Lanka
Thursday 21 July 2011
How great to hear from Feizal [Samath]. First Dalton [de Silva], then Dalton and Feizal, then Feizal were the best correspondents we (or any news organisation) ever had in Sri Lanka.
They owned the story and at the most difficult of times were always fair and impartial, always turning in pencil subbable copy. It was an ugly, ugly, ugly story to cover and when people ask me what is the worst thing I ever saw working for Reuters it was in Sri Lanka. I arrived at a village about 30 mins chopper ride from Colombo to see it still smoking and lined up beside an irrigation ditch were 42 bodies (men, women, children, babies, teenagers, elderly) and they had all been disembowelled and had their skulls split open. Pass the whisky.
I am shocked, but shocked I say, that a Reuters Correspondent, nay even a Bureau Chief, would fritter the night away with liquor. But then again if you’ve ever stayed at the Galle Face (when it really was the Galle Face) you’d know on a moonlit night there was nothing better to do than watch the sun come up from the Galle Face terrace.
It always bemused me why I was about the only foreign correspondent who stayed there while everyone else ran off to the Hilton etc at about 10 times the price. I would arrive, be escorted around the hotel suite/rooms picking out a sofa here, an armchair there, a vase here, a dining table there, a large cushion here which within half an hour would all be installed in my own personally designed suite. What a place it was. I guess one of my fondest (of many, many) memories of Reuters Asia was that I had the chance to stay in the Raffles and Galle Face before they became what they are now. They were faded glories by the time I checked in to them but they still left every other hotel I’ve ever stayed in around the world for dead.
While we are on reminiscences I guess you can’t talk about Sri Lanka without recalling one of the great Reuters chairmen state visit stories. I know there are a million of them.
Anyway, Sir Denis Hamilton (a real gentlemen) visited the Sri Lanka office in the company of some of our exalted Asia executives (or maybe even higher). After a splendid lunch Sir Denis and the group went back to the office and the spicy food got him so he had to rush to the “toilet”. The toilet was basically a bucket.
Being a good man, Sir Denis’ only instruction at the end of the visit was that a proper toilet should be installed and working within a week. There was even a rumour he insisted a photo should be sent to him assuring that it had been done.
Those were the days My Friend. You can keep your Pulitzer Prizes.
Brian Williams
vbnbnbn
They owned the story and at the most difficult of times were always fair and impartial, always turning in pencil subbable copy. It was an ugly, ugly, ugly story to cover and when people ask me what is the worst thing I ever saw working for Reuters it was in Sri Lanka. I arrived at a village about 30 mins chopper ride from Colombo to see it still smoking and lined up beside an irrigation ditch were 42 bodies (men, women, children, babies, teenagers, elderly) and they had all been disembowelled and had their skulls split open. Pass the whisky.
I am shocked, but shocked I say, that a Reuters Correspondent, nay even a Bureau Chief, would fritter the night away with liquor. But then again if you’ve ever stayed at the Galle Face (when it really was the Galle Face) you’d know on a moonlit night there was nothing better to do than watch the sun come up from the Galle Face terrace.
It always bemused me why I was about the only foreign correspondent who stayed there while everyone else ran off to the Hilton etc at about 10 times the price. I would arrive, be escorted around the hotel suite/rooms picking out a sofa here, an armchair there, a vase here, a dining table there, a large cushion here which within half an hour would all be installed in my own personally designed suite. What a place it was. I guess one of my fondest (of many, many) memories of Reuters Asia was that I had the chance to stay in the Raffles and Galle Face before they became what they are now. They were faded glories by the time I checked in to them but they still left every other hotel I’ve ever stayed in around the world for dead.
While we are on reminiscences I guess you can’t talk about Sri Lanka without recalling one of the great Reuters chairmen state visit stories. I know there are a million of them.
Anyway, Sir Denis Hamilton (a real gentlemen) visited the Sri Lanka office in the company of some of our exalted Asia executives (or maybe even higher). After a splendid lunch Sir Denis and the group went back to the office and the spicy food got him so he had to rush to the “toilet”. The toilet was basically a bucket.
Being a good man, Sir Denis’ only instruction at the end of the visit was that a proper toilet should be installed and working within a week. There was even a rumour he insisted a photo should be sent to him assuring that it had been done.
Those were the days My Friend. You can keep your Pulitzer Prizes.
Brian Williams
vbnbnbn
Sri Lanka
Thursday 21 July 2011
This morning (Sri Lanka time, 9:30 am) I stumbled on the Baron website and was amazed, enthused and delighted to read its contents and of people from the past, particularly Brian Williams – my favourite correspondent at Reuters.
Brian, for us in Sri Lanka, was an institution and here’s one interesting anecdote about the guy and his ability:
At a time when Brian was based in New Delhi as buro chief, he came to Colombo to report on the Sri Lankan conflict – like many others from Reuter buros overseas – and was a great asset, as always, to our coverage. This was around 1985-88 I believe. The Colombo buro was headed by Dalton de Silva, a veteran journalist who sadly passed away some years back after a battle with cancer.
One morning, Dalton told me to meet Brian at the Galle Face Hotel (where he was staying) to pass on an urgent message. Knocking at his room door, Brian comes out staggering with blood-red eyes saying “Hey, mate, what’s happening?” – typically Brian.
“Hey Brian, did you wake up with a drink,” I asked, laughing. “Oh, no mate, I have been drinking all night,” he laughed.
True to form and his ability, Brian turned up in the office by 8-9 am and churned out great copy for the morning AM SCHEDULE on the Sri Lanka situation. This is after returning to the hotel the previous night (late) after writing the late-nite piece. Being sozzy didn’t cloud his skills as a journalist honed probably during his Vietnam war reporting days.
It was a pleasure to work with Brian and learn from him.
Feizal Samath
Reuters Correspondent Colombo 1985-1997
vbnbnbn
Brian, for us in Sri Lanka, was an institution and here’s one interesting anecdote about the guy and his ability:
At a time when Brian was based in New Delhi as buro chief, he came to Colombo to report on the Sri Lankan conflict – like many others from Reuter buros overseas – and was a great asset, as always, to our coverage. This was around 1985-88 I believe. The Colombo buro was headed by Dalton de Silva, a veteran journalist who sadly passed away some years back after a battle with cancer.
One morning, Dalton told me to meet Brian at the Galle Face Hotel (where he was staying) to pass on an urgent message. Knocking at his room door, Brian comes out staggering with blood-red eyes saying “Hey, mate, what’s happening?” – typically Brian.
“Hey Brian, did you wake up with a drink,” I asked, laughing. “Oh, no mate, I have been drinking all night,” he laughed.
True to form and his ability, Brian turned up in the office by 8-9 am and churned out great copy for the morning AM SCHEDULE on the Sri Lanka situation. This is after returning to the hotel the previous night (late) after writing the late-nite piece. Being sozzy didn’t cloud his skills as a journalist honed probably during his Vietnam war reporting days.
It was a pleasure to work with Brian and learn from him.
Feizal Samath
Reuters Correspondent Colombo 1985-1997
vbnbnbn
