ASIA: The ‘Grey’ World of Freelancing
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By Lynette Lee Corporal BANGKOK, Mar 5 (Asia Media Forum) — ‘Grey’ might just be the right shade of colour to give the world of freelance journalism, one where norms differ from one media organisation to another and where ethical dilemmas arise that lead to judgement calls shaped by individual definitions of what is ‘professional’. Freelancing is a bit like water seeking its own level depending on the container it is in. Media organisations try, test and work with those who share their priorities and freelancers discover and keep the strings that find acceptable their ways of working, be it about work rates or exclusivity of editorial material. In the end, the best freelance working arrangements grow around finding a good fit in an environment of professional trust and transparency. "I think freelancers, especially the established ones, are more conscious about ethics and rules of engagement because you have to look after your reputation,” said Sri Lankan journalist Amantha Perera, a regular contributor for eight years or so to 'Time' magazine and Time.com, Inter Press Service Asia-Pacific news agency and the humanitarian news service IRIN under the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “You screw up, there is no one else to blame.” "Like any relationship, trust and confidence play an important role in how freelancers are hired or commissioned stories by news agencies," a veteran Filipino journalist who works for a mainstream international wire agency told the AMF. Oftentimes, he added, news agencies prefer to deal with freelancers or stringers with good reputations and credibility in the industry. This is to avoid "moral, legal and other issues that would put the agencies' reputation and credibility at risk", he said. Publications that take freelance contributions have different ways of accepting new writers and can be cautious about ‘blind’ contributions from those they do not know well. "Before we take on a new contributor, we do our research about him or her," said Margie T Logarta, managing editor for Asia for the Hong Kong-based Panacea Publishing Asia Ltd and 'Business Traveller' magazine. Among the major challenges for editors and freelancers alike are the fact that many writers say they need to recover costs of doing work by trying to get each article – or some variation of it – and that it is hard to rely on freelancing as a main source of income. But from the media organisations’ viewpoint, relationships with freelancers can be crucial because issues like originality and quality affect the end-product that they distribute or sell to clients and are thus directly related to credibility and reputation. NEW MEDIA AND CHANGED RULES Freelancers used to be able to sell the same material or story to local media and still safely give that to regional and international media, because the distribution modes were different – but no longer in the age of new media. The Internet has also made it much easier to check up on story contributions, especially as media outlets strive to maximise their resources. Some freelancers say they give material to three or more agencies, even competing ones, because of low rates in the media industry, lack of security of tenure, not having extra benefits in cash or in kind. So, said the Filipino journalist and editor who has been in the industry for 27 years, "local (Filipino) journalists are forced to string for or work part-time to foreign news agencies". While he says freelancing in the Philippines is a thriving job, 'Entrepreneur Magazine' associate editor Jimbo Gulle agrees that one cannot live by freelancing alone. "Most local newspapers don't pay very well. The norm is 100 pesos (2 U.S. dollars) for a regular, non-front page news article. Most magazines usually pay one month after their publication date, but produce their issues two to three months ahead of the issue date, which means that the freelancer will have to wait as long as four months before getting a cheque for a job," said Gulle, a former editor of the ‘Jeepney’ street paper who has been in the industry for more than 16 years. For a Filipino medical doctor who loves to write, Rory Pascual knows how meagre an income source freelancing can be. A freelance writer since the late '70s, Pascual says magazine publications pay "very little" with article rates ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 pesos (22 to 43 dollars). The payment also gets delayed at times, she said. "While I only get commissioned works, because there's a policy that you only get paid if published, if the editor decides not to publish it, you won't get any pay at all," she said, adding that things become "very difficult" in between assignments. "Sadly, there are no laws in the Philippines that protect freelancers. I've spoken to a lot of freelancers who have been cheated out of their pay by certain publications and companies," she added. REPUTATION IS KEY Perera explains that the freelancing culture "is almost non-existent" in Sri Lanka because editors "feel that freelancing is a threat to the top-down control mechanism" of local publications. Thus, a new freelancer can face challenges ahead. But problems, whether financial or professional, should not circumvent ethical considerations, added Perera. Most news agencies and publications follow a standard ethical guideline regarding exclusivity. Depending on the situation, editors and freelancers agree that a submitted material becomes the property of the agency that commissioned or bought it. Explains Perera, "The rules of engagement should be very clear. If an agency funds your entire assignment, then whatever is produced, that outlet has first and exclusive use. If you pitch something, then the material is exclusive to whoever has accepted the pitch." Logarta says that a freelancer is asked to sign over rights to the article to 'Business Traveller', which can use the material in any of its nine editions. When freelancers break the agreed rules, Logarta says the publishing group automatically cuts professional ties with them. "However, we are not so coldhearted as to outrightly ban them from writing about the same (travel) destination somewhere else — we just tell them, write about it from another angle," she said, adding that they also understand the financial situation of freelancers. Some foreign news agencies, meanwhile, have two kinds of arrangements with freelancers. According to the Filipino journalist, a permanent stringer is expected to file exclusively for a particular agency and is not allowed to "do outside job". Considered a contractor, he or she is given "a much higher pay than ordinary stringers, who are paid on a per-piece basis or on retainer basis". Then there are the beat stringers or ordinary freelancers for mainstream news agencies who are allowed to submit material – usually information and quotes instead of fully written stories -- to other agencies. "We don't mind getting exact quotes and topics. But there are stories we do exclusively and we ask beat stringers/freelancers to give us specific quotes, which should not be shared with the rest. It's on a case-to-case basis," he explained. While agreeing that submission of the same raw material and quotes from events and news to other agencies should not happen in principle, in real life, the Filipino journalist said he sees 80 percent of their ordinary stringers' material submitted to all agencies. "My counterparts in other agencies know these things happen but we don't talk about it. If we want to have our own quotes, we call the officials themselves; the stringers are used as signposts," he added. As an incentive and to discourage this practice, he said that their agency usually give the beat stringers certain "rewards". "The trick is to offer these beat reporters extra payment if they get ahead of the pack, so to speak. News agencies not only compete for accuracy but more importantly, speed. So if the stringers can be much faster in sending stories, data or information, they get rewards," he said. But this arrangement could be simpler for agencies that take mainly tips, material, accounts of press conferences or statements from regular beats, rather than fully written stories. For agencies that take full features, seeing the exact same story with the same content, even if reshaped, can create serious credibility problems with their clients, not to mention their professional policies. In the case of 'Entrepreneur Magazine’, Gulle said that apart from having contracts that give the company the right to use the content "exclusively for at least six months after the article is published", it also does a routine character check for "any previous history of plagiarism or 'xerox journalism' in local parlance, or of tolerance and practice of 'envelopmental journalism'." "Because the journalistic community here (in the Philippines) is relatively small, word usually goes around if a freelancer has done something dubious or unsavoury in the past," he added. Freelancing in the world of international news agencies and publications the world over is very common, but in some parts of Asia and some local media, it might not yet have gained the same understanding and acceptance. "It's not as developed in the west. People are still judged by if they hold down a regular job or are a salaried employee of an established publication," she said. More often than not, too, added Logarta, freelancers "are regarded as 'hacks'." (END/IPSAP/AMF/LLC/JS/050310) |
Aung Htun (not his real name) is one of the young video journalists featured in the award-winning feature documentary 'Burma VJ (Reporting from a Closed Country)'. 
