Covering a Court Story

Reflecting on all of the briefings, it was a no brainer for me to write about Jean-Pierre Bemba's case at The Hague for my spot news story. I found myself constantly talking about the trial with my roommates once I returned to Chicago. The case had certainly opened my mind to the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Like Alla said before we sat in on the case that Monday, we're here, we're safe and we don't often think of other things happening across the world. We don't think about the young children, women and elders being abused and raped. We don't think about the violence and the fear.

Alla said it perfectly when she said, "This makes me doubt humanity, but this is every day life for them."

I actually enjoyed writing my story because I feel like I've learned a lot, though there is still more to learn and follow. I'm excited to see this case unfold over the next several months, especially knowing that I actually sat in on it (amongst Bemba's family even).

The hardest part about writing this particular story was finding a way to make it significant for readers. Why should an American audience care about an international court they're not even a part of or the Democratic Republic of the Congo? I feel as if I've made my story significant by breaking down the case by providing enough background, but finding an element that most people can relate to. Most people can't relate to rape, but most people understand how horrible it is.

In case anybody is interesting in following the case, here is Jean-Pierre Bemba's information page on the ICC website: The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo

Salaam Alaikum!

The second that I knew I was going to France I knew what my feature story was going to be on. I had been working on a story during Fall semester 2010 about the lives of Muslims in America, focused mostly on how the recent “anti-muslim” issues (the Mosque in Manhattan, the firing of Juan Williams from NPR, Quran burnings etc.) in the U.S. affected their everyday lives. Lately a lot of my articles had been focused on the Middle East and the Muslim culture. Which I guess is a refection of what my interests had become, I had been slowing but surely learning basic Arabic (still am!) and reading every book about the Middle East I could get my hands on. (I highly recommend “Every Man in This Village is a Liar”) It also didn’t help (or I guess it did) that my boyfriend had just spent the whole summer in the Middle East. So these issues were constantly on my mind and I was well aware of the tensions that were rising between the French and Muslim immigrants, in fact that was one of the main reasons I was excited about going.

Now that I’ve got a chance to reflect I’m not sure that I was able to get exactly what I wanted from the trip, I guess I got wrapped up in the city of Paris and wasn’t able to capture exactly what I hoped. (My biggest regret is that I didn’t have time to visit the Great Mosque of Paris) But the trip did help me further my understanding of the heart and struggle of the Muslim people. With my broken Arabic mixed with my broken French and their broken English I met some great people. I met a woman at the market who said, “You come live here and I’ll teach you Arabic!” and a man who I spoke to near the Eiffel Tower who told me all about his family and where they came from in Pakistan. I guess I was lucky though, because I realized early on that the confusion of the French was actually a benefit to me. See, the French, they thought I was Middle Eastern, I suppose it’s rare for them to see a Mexican there. I decided to use that to my full advantage and I believe that’s what really helped the immigrants open up to me. (Although I may have had some sort of identity crisis myself!)

This trip has really made me even giddier to explore the Middle East and take the steps to actually become an international reporter there and I am very thankful.

Paris Food Multimedia

This is a glimpse of Caslon Hatch and Wyatt Danz' multimedia project. The experience might be better if you check it out here
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=210220272633959306668.00049a4b78c024f0f35c2&z=13 .... Enjoy!

View Paris Food in a larger map

Experiencing Anne Frank

“Anne Frank”

Just hearing that name brings out emotions for people all over the world. I mean who knew that the diary of a young Jewish girl would be translated into more than 50 different languages and touch the lives of millions?

Visiting Her Hiding Place in Amsterdam

Our first step into the museum lobby was nothing extraordinary: employees, blah-colored walls and floors, but as we were shuffled next door into the beginning of our journey, the atmosphere instantly changed.

The first thing I saw was a quote by Anne on a lighted wall. I wish I could remember what it said, but I didn’t get a chance to write it down and got flustered when I was stopped from taking a photograph. Even though I can’t recall her words, I can still remember feeling as if Anne herself was pulling me into her secret world.

As I continued walking through the rooms of the house, I read and watched everything the museum put together. All that kept running through my mind were images of Anne and her family trying so hard to live in secret and struggling with the fear that at any moment they could be discovered and killed.

Can You Imagine?

You need to be so strong. The never knowing if this was the day you and your family would be found?

One thing I noticed was that no one spoke. If there hadn’t been short video clips playing, I’m sure that all you would be able to hear is the shuffling of feet, creaking of floorboards, and the thoughts running through everyone’s mind as they all catch a glimpse of life in the Secret Annex.

Keeping His Family Safe

Something I didn’t expect to learn was the huge role Anne’s father, Otto Frank, played in orchestrating such an endeavor to keep his family safe. In the fifth grade, “The Secret Diary of Anne Frank” was a part of our school curriculum, but since then I had forgotten Otto’s courage and love for his family. The house reminded me of this and helped me to see this father’s deep love.

Never Forget

Of all my European adventure, visiting Anne Frank’s house is definitely one of my favorite experiences. I will always remember Otto Frank’s words: “To build up a future, you have to know the past.”

| Where there’s a will, there’s a way Bon jour! While we enjoy all that Paris has to offer, we must also churn out a multimedia project because let’s face it, we are here for a class. Being a broadcast major--but mostly being the fact I lugged over 5 lbs. news camera and tripod halfway across the world--I decided to produce a 2-minute news package on the French identity. Yesterday morning, my partner and I decided hitting the flea market would be a great way to get a diverse group of interviews to use for our stories. One reason being the venture was already on the itinerary for the day so we wouldn’t have to go alone, and the other being there would be a ton of people so it wouldn’t take long and we get a head start. But as with everything else in life, we hit a few bumps. We first did a few stand ups, which drew a small crowd because hey when we see a big camera and microphone we all become moths to a flame. This got us even more excited to get our interviews because the people surrounding us seemed excited to see they had stumbled upon a little bit of media attention so we figured we’d be in and out of there. Besides the language barrier, vendors working the flea market turned us down for on-camera interviews time and time again. Here’s a rundown of how a majority of our attempts went: 1. We approached the vendor in a friendly manner and strike up a conversation. 2. We’d brief them on the story we wanted to tell. 3. The vendor would enthusiastically begin talking (in a good amount of understandable English) about what their thoughts were and maybe say something compelling. 4. We asked for permission to conduct an on-camera interview. 5. The vendor refused and insisted they did not know enough English or had nothing to say. We were so disheartened by all the rejection we experienced in such a short amount of time. What happened to all the excitement the vendors and customers showed when we were doing our stand ups? But just as we were about to throw in the towel, a wonderful French-speaking angel came our way. Her name was Coralie and she was a former Columbia College exchange student and our personal guide. She made her way to us and offered to help by acting as our translator. I can’t even describe the relief we felt. Our spirits perked up and we were ready to give it another go. For the next hour or so, Coralie persisted with us and we were able to get the interviews we came for! Photo Courtesy of Sammy Saiyavongsa

Since we departed on our Europe adventure I started thinking of the stories I might want to do over there. Even when doing stories in Chicago I’ve experienced some problems trying to find sources and getting in contact with helpful people to interview for my stories. Well doing stories in a different country where there is a different language it is ten times harder to try and get people to give you an interview. Parisians are very friendly people but are very careful about who they share their information with, they aren’t like Americans who share everything with everyone. For my feature story I did it on soccer culture in Paris and in the US. People were willing to give their opinion but when I asked them for their personal information like a phone number or email address they were kind of hesitant and some said they could not give me their information because they didn’t know me. Even after I explained that it was for school. For my spot news it was even harder. I did it on the trial from the Hague. We couldn’t really talk to anyone from the trial and we could not record the briefings we received before the trial. For my multi-media I based it on the legalization of marijuana in Amsterdam, that one was fun because people in Amsterdam were very willing to share their information but off camera. Only one guy allowed me to record him but with one condition that his face wouldn’t show and so I had to tape him in the dark. Hopefully my stories turned out okay and the sources and information I was able to get is enough.

A Reflection

Before departing for my European adventure, the task of finding my own stories abroad felt daunting, to say the least. Would I be able to find sources? Would I even be able to find story ideas?

However, my fears were thankfully put to rest a few short days into the trip. We were given inside access to so many organizations, institutions and important individuals it would have been impossible not to stumble upon a story.

For my spot and feature stories, I wanted to take full advantage of the opportunities we had.

For my feature story, I wrote about our visit to the European Parliament. I was glad our host, Alexandros Karides, was so incredibly knowledgeable; he was like ten sources in one. He definitely made the Parliament easy to understand and therefore, easy to write about. The only difficulty I had was researching into the complex history of the European Union as a whole.

For my spot news story, I chose to write about the court proceedings we witnessed at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The ICC was without a doubt my most anticipated stop on the trip. I was surprised we were allowed to watch a case as important as Jean-Pierre Bemba's case is. I had been following the situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic for awhile and it was surreal to see the case playing out before my very eyes. One of the difficulties that came with this story was hearing the horrifying testimony from the witness. It was hard to imagine what she went through was and is happening to people all over the world, every day. The other challenge I had was writing a hard news piece. I've never been much of a fan of hard news writing (since I'm a magazine major) so getting back into the groove of the "inverted pyramid-style" was difficult.

Despite any headaches and/or worrying these articles brought, I was glad with how they both turned out. If nothing else, now I can say I'm a real, live international reporter!

*Photo by Becca James