viewpoint


Out in the cold even with an exclusive


Freelances often shut out by news organisations, says Rahila Gupta W


hen the Shamima Begum story went viral after a front-page story in The Times in February, I was gutted.


That story could have been mine. I had a scoop but, despite frantic scrambling around, was unable to place the piece. This is the curse of freelance life. The story begins in 2016 when I


travelled to Rojava in north-east Syria to research Why Doesn’t Patriarchy Die? It’s a book I am writing with Beatrix Campbell. To my amazement, a women’s revolution was going on (a scoop in its own right) in the Kurdish- led self-administration of Rojava in the middle of a war with brutal thugs ISIS. I have written about this for the CNN


website, openDemocracy, New Humanist and others but unfortunately it has not become mainstream news. When television news carries stories about Kurdish-led victories with women soldiers in the forefront, it does not refer to the participatory democracy that gives space to women fighting patriarchy. I went there, self-funded, without the


backing of a news organisation. My trip was organised by London-based Peace in Kurdistan. I was grateful to be hosted but I was also worried about feeling compromised by my ‘guest’ status. I stayed in the homes of members of Kongreya Star, the women’s umbrella organisation. I made contacts with some women leaders with whom I remained in touch on returning. When I first approached the Syrian


Democratic Forces (SDF) press office last year to interview British ISIS women, I was told that it was not their policy to give them media coverage. However, as the SDF continued to


liberate all the areas of the vast ‘caliphate’, the Rojava administration’s resources were stretched to breaking point. They began calling for jihadis to be repatriated to their countries of origin. At this point, I asked again if I could


interview some of the women, making the case that they needed to be seen as human beings to shift the public debate. This time they agreed – but would not allow interviews by phone or Skype. I could send questions by email which they would put to the women, film the interviews and then send them back to me. The only alternative: I would have to visit. I asked if it would be an exclusive. They wanted to know this meant. When I explained, they agreed. I was excited beyond words. I started


working all my contacts. In drafting my first email, I found


myself conflicted about the angle of this scoop. I knew the primary focus should be the human interest angle. I proposed an article based on the fascinating backstories of these women, their dreams, their aspirations, their disappointments, their hopes for the future and perhaps their unrepentant adherence to fundamentalist Islam. My real interest was to use their


stories as a Trojan horse to give mainstream coverage to the Kurdish women’s revolution. Their whole approach to justice is rehabilitative and non-punitive as opposed to the Kurdish administration across the border in Iraq where ISIS members are sentenced to execution after a 10-minute trial. They had been carrying out gender equality training in the refugee camps and I wanted to find out whether the


“ ”


ISIS women had been exposed to it. Perhaps these add-ons had been


off-putting to commissioning editors. Many did not even respond! A senior commissioning editor at


CNN said the channel would use a freelance to cover such stories only if there were no staff on the ground but that Syria was well covered. The Daily Telegraph was interested.


However, a few hours later, they pointed out that they had already carried out interviews; I felt embarrassed for hawking the story as an ‘exclusive’. When I checked with the SDF, they


knew nothing about the Telegraph or the Times. Apparently, Western journalists find local fixers who, for a fee, bypass the rules and get them access to the camps without the permission of the SDF. A friend with contacts at the


The lack of exclusivity was not a deal breaker. The FT said: ‘We simply can’t send a freelance into Syria.’ It was a health and safety issue


Financial Times said that the lack of exclusivity was not a deal breaker. However, the newspaper itself responded: “We simply can’t send a freelance into Syria.” It was a health and safety issue. Even with the shedding of staff


journalists at many outlets, the odds remain stacked against freelances. Travelling to a war zone requires expensive insurance cover and a security minder. I had neither on my first visit and I was prepared to do this again but the increasingly risk-averse newsgathering environment made that unacceptable. And stories can be bought and rules


broken with corporations’ resources. Freelances have always been on the


periphery but, today, even a potential scoop does not allow them access to the mainstream.


theJournalist | 09


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