... and freelance achievement

This year almost the only news footage coming out of Iraq has been from freelancers, with newsgathering organisations relying heavily - and at times solely - on their contribution. It could have been so easy to overlook the major stories unfolding in other parts of the world. However, freelancers are out there, making sure we know about Darfur, about Haiti, about Gaza, Somalia, Laos; making sure that these stories appear - and remain - on the news agenda. This is a year, truly, of freelance achievement.

The Trust has worked hard to get a representative balance for all its judging panels, which consisted of freelance camerapeople, film-makers and journalists, foreign correspondents and broadcast executives, with personal perspectives covering Europe and the Middle East.

The discussion around the entries was often passionate, centering on issues at the very heart of the Trust’s work: the safety of journalists in war zones, the pros and cons of being embedded, how to ensure the veracity of stories and pictures, how to respect the contribution of local freelancers. They are also the issues which face newsgathering organisations everywhere. Having more freelancers on the judging panels raised greater awareness of the freelance issues behind the footage. There was first-hand appreciation of how the footage had been shot, the value of totally self-funded pieces, and the difficulties faced by locally-based freelancers.

And lest we forget, not all freelancers are war journalists…

During the last twelve months we have grown and we have travelled - but we are still looking after individual freelancers and their families. And some of those families, by supporting our work, have found a way to help others. The Trust is especially grateful to the families and friends of Jeremy Little, Roddy Scott, and Richard Wild.

Tina Carr
Director, The Rory Peck Trust

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

  
  

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