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A Waiver for Displaced PeopleBy: Conrad Fox on February 10, 2009
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Not everyone wants you to talk to people at the center of a news story, even when you know you have only their interests at heart. I attended a workshop delivered to refugees by an aid organization in Bogota. The director of the program looked at me with distaste when I told her I hoped to interview the attendees. She made me search out my work on the internet to prove I was genuine. She made calls to her superior. She told me how "delicate" it was talking to victims of violence.
 A displaced family in Cali chats with reporter Conrad Fox. | She then told me there were legal issues involved and even gave me a waiver for my interviewees to sign. "It's for their protection," she told me. "And yours," I thought. ("I'm sorry, but the press have made us look bad in the past," a reluctant government official told me when I asked her to vouch for me.) So, I began my work cautiously, even timidly. While an aid worker explained to a group of refugees how to look for work in the city, I touched audience members gently on the elbow and asked politely if I could ask them a few questions. To my surprise, they were happy to tell me their stories. In fact, I soon had a small lineup of people eager to talk. Then I was surrounded by people, and finally, we all just sat on the grass in a circle and passed the microphone back and forth. |
By the end of the day, I had more people gathered around me, giving me interviews, than were listening to the workshop.
At one point I pulled out the waiver. "It's so that one day, when you're all back on your feet again, you don't decide to sue me!" The whole group laughed together.
