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'You have to be respectful'

An international correspondent's life can be exhilarating — the travel, the adventure, the sense of being right in the middle of where it's all happening. But it can also be very risky, especially in a war zone. And it can take an emotional toll on even the most seasoned journalist. The job comes with ethical and philosophical considerations, not to mention practical questions — like what do you pack? From the Second World War to present day, CBC Archives examines what it's like to be a CBC journalist abroad.

When you're a journalist working in a foreign country, there are always personal and cultural adjustments. But when you're a female doing the job, there's an added layer of adjustment, explains journalist Edith Champagne in this excerpt from a 2002 panel discussion. Whether it's covering your head or wearing a burka, "you have to be respectful" of cultural customs if you want locals to open up to you. "If you're going to get what you need, that's what you have to do," explains Champagne. 
• The first female foreign correspondent for Radio-Canada (the French-language version of CBC) was Judith Jasmin. She had done work for Radio-Canada almost since its inception and had filed numerous international reports, but she officially became United Nations correspondent in 1966 and Washington correspondent in 1968.
• On the English-language network, there wasn't a prominent female presence in the world of foreign reporting until Ann Medina started covering the Middle East in the early 1980s.

• During the 1990s, war reporting became more of an equal playing field, according to a 1999 Globe and Mail article. "The increase in women covering wars is due, in part, to the overall rise in the presence of women on television screens. War coverage, too, has changed: it is no longer strictly a military story. Are more women doing the job because they do those stories well, or are more of those stories told now because women are doing the reporting?"
Medium: Television
Program: CBC Television News Special
Broadcast Date: May 27, 2002
Guest(s): Edith Champagne, Kas Roussy
Host: Rick MacInnes-Rae
Duration: 4:33

Last updated: January 23, 2012

Page consulted on August 21, 2012

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