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The Life of a Foreign Correspondent

11 Sep 2018
By Michael Bachelard and Peter Bateman
Thousands of people march in Myanmar to demand journalist freedom (Credit: InvestexGlobal)

In a week that saw journalists arrested and convicted, including in Myanmar and Cambodia, this episode of AIIA VIC’s Dyason House podcast discusses the challenges of reporting abroad.

Being a foreign correspondent offers journalists the chance to go into the field and report in depth. The challenge is ensuring safety in dangerous places. While they may receive hostile environment training and mental health counselling, foreign correspondents are faced with the political sensitivity of working in illiberal countries. Advances in technology, such as in cyber, further compromise their location security in filing reports.

Michael Bachelard is Fairfax’s foreign editor and the investigations editor at The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta as Fairfax’s Indonesia correspondent. He has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley in 2017.

Interviewed by Peter Bateman.