Its sometimes described as parachuting into a story. A reporter goes off on assignment to a country with which he or she is relatively unfamiliar, sent because this otherwise largely unreported nation has suddenly become particularly newsworthy. Often, the reporter has never before set foot in the place. Such an assignment can be one of the most exciting, difficult, frustrating, and possibly dangerous that a journalist may face, particularly when theres also a time limit that constrains reporting.
Frequently, the subject country is a logistical nightmare compared to the reporters home base, and the supporting infrastructure may be largely limited in practice to what the journalist can carry.
In the days or hours before departure, the reporter scours every source around to get background information. He or she beats the bushes for local experts willing to share their knowledge about the country, and tries to arrange the support that will be needed once on the ground things like an interpreter, transportation, and back-up communications.
MSBNC.coms Preston Mendenhall is an army of one: In Afghanistan, he gathered his own audio, shot video, snapped still photos and got the story of how daily life is lived under the repressive Taliban regime.
The coverage that results from such an assignment is almost by definition incomplete and heavily anecdotal. But it can also be an important service to readers.
Such is the case with Pariah Nation: A journey through Afghanistan, a package of articles on that country reported, photographed and written mostly by MSNBC.coms London-based International Editor, Preston Mendenhall.
How he got the story
Mendenhall and MSNBC.coms senior producer for special reports, Michael Moran, had talked about a package on Afghanistan for some time. Both of us, I think, felt the story was under-covered and fairly integral to all the talk of collapsing states, new terrorist threats and the backlash to globalization, says Moran. But the idea didnt climb high enough on the priority list until the April destruction by Afghanistans Taliban regime of the 1,500 year-old Bamiyan Buddhas 175-foot stone images carved into a cliff face and revered globally as the countrys greatest monument.
During the accompanying international outcry, Mendenhall applied for a rare journalist visa to enter the country, and to both his and Morans surprise, the visa was granted about two weeks later. Mendenhall scrambled to do his homework, arranged for a guide and Pushtu-speaking interpreter through contacts in neighboring Pakistan, and headed to Islamabad to pick up his visa at the Afghan embassy there and make final arrangements to enter the country.
Rules and restrictions
Along with his two-week visa, Mendenhall was presented at the embassy with a document outlining Terms and Conditions for Journalists Visiting the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan. Among them:
- No interviews with Afghan women without prior permission of the government;
- No films or photos with the exception of non-living objects, also without prior permission;
- No interviewing of individuals in their homes.
At that, Mendenhall says that aside from his time in the capital, Kabul, he was not required to have an official guide known in journalistic jargon as a minder. As his articles demonstrate, he found many ordinary Afghans willing to speak with him and to be photographed. A group of Taliban fighters wanted photos of themselves as souvenirs, so Mendenhall shot a roll of film and handed it over to them so they could get it developed.
As he traveled around the country in hired Toyota mini-van taxis, Mendenhall was in daily contact with both his office in London and Moran, using a satellite phone which he carried, along with a small digital video camera, a 35-mm camera, a laptop and a tripod, in a fairly large backpack.
Perils on the road
His most frightening moment, he says, came when he, his driver and interpreter encountered a group of what they assumed to be drug runners on the road between Kandahar and Herat. The men had a large cache of opium in their Toyota pickup and tried once to cut off the journalists taxi. A passing UN convoy proved a safe haven.
Mendenhall feels he got a taste of how life goes on in the country. One of the main story lines was that for all the edicts and rules and the Taliban version of Islam, theres a lot of defiance, a lot of dissent. In some cases its more open; in some behind closed doors.
His biggest disappointment, Mendenhall says, is that he was not able to speak with Afghan women something he hopes to do on a second trip one day.
What was missing
Strange as it may sound, Id like to have seen more in the package from Taliban officials. Only two were quoted the countrys foreign minister in the lead-off article “Afghanistan tests the Taliban, and the countrys ambassador at large in an article about the Talibans ban on opium production “Afghanistans cash crop wilts, But I would like to get a much fuller picture of the kind of Afghanistan the Taliban authorities see themselves creating.
What sort of economic plan do they have? How do they see their country relating to the rest of the world? What sort of entertainment do they consider appropriate?
That said, its also true that Mendenhall had only two weeks to do his reporting. And as he told me, trying to line up official access can waste precious hours or even days. Given that he was also responsible for recording his own audio, shooting his own video, snapping still photos and taking notes, Mendenhall clearly had little time to waste.
