For Roddy - and Helping Others

After Roddy was killed we decided that the best memorial to him was to help other freelance media workers. We have run an Auction of Promises for The Trust with a hog roast, at which Kate Adie spoke quite brilliantly. Over two hundred attended and we sold wonderfully generous promises. We invited local business colleagues to a small reception at our home and their donations funded a bursary for a Zimbabwean journalist to do his Hostile Environment training in the UK. Harrogate fashion designer Rita Valpiani ran a fashion show for The Trust and created another bursary. We have used Roddy’s photos to make Christmas cards and those are available again this year at the Awards or directly from us. There are plans for a summer function next year.

We are delighted that funds donated in Roddy’s name have been helping others. A grant will help the mother of freelance cameraman Adam Tepsurkayev, who was killed in Chechnya in 2000. Luciana da Costa, the young widow of a Brazilian freelance photojournalist, will be able to take professional training so that she can become a photographer herself, and support her young family.

I write this as the anniversary of Roddy’s death, two years ago, looms ahead. We now know much more of what actually happened, thanks to a journalist working in the Caucasus who has been in touch with a number of Chechyns who knew Roddy. He was shot by a sniper as he filmed a burning Russian armoured vehicle and two helicopter gunships brought down by Chechyn fire. Three Chechyns died with Roddy, and a fourth trying to help them. The old man who was the brigade’s guide through the mountains described Roddy as “very courageous and brave and he walked through the mountains better than the guys brought up in the mountainous villages. He even helped them carry their packs.” A refugee who knew Roddy in the Pankisi said “your son, next to our husbands and brothers, perished like a hero and he will live forever in our memory as an unforgettable hero fighting for the truth. God bless you!”

We are very proud.

Christina Scott

The Rory Peck Awards Brochure 2004

• Programme
• Why Freelancers Matter
• A Year of Growth...
• ...and Freelance Achievement
• From Sony
• The Overseas Project
• Reporting Iraq
• The Freelance World
  An Iraqi in Iraq
  An American in Iraq
  In Pakistan
  In Haiti
  In Zimbabwe
• Report on Safety Training Course
• Trauma can get stuck in the system
• For Roddy - and Helping Others

The Rory Peck Awards

• Winners
• Finalists

  
  

The Trust | Awards | Training | The Free Lens | Links | Feedback | Home

Limited Company No. 35524586 Registered in England and Wales
Charity Reg. No. 1071844