Open Letter To Kelly Macnamera And Other Thailand Sex Reporters

[mark45y]

You wrote a story for AFP that is currently running in the news forum of Thai Visa. The story is about trafficking people.

The basics of writing a news article.

Who? Women from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos but no one has any real numbers.

What? Labor for factories but no one has any real numbers.

Where? No one knows.

When? No one knows.

Why? Cheap labor.

How? You have no idea.

Dear Ms Macnamara ,

Get off your lazy butt and go out and do a story.

The basics remain the same, who, what, where, when, why and how.

You have the information to start. Find out where the girls come from and how they got sold into slavery. What kind of slavery is it? Factory, sex shop, find out and name the place and the persons who took the ladies there.

Your piece of rumor cobbling has done little to help the problem. You gave no new information or no new answers or no new facts.

You are a reporter. It is your job to get information and report it.

If there are large amounts of women held in slavery in the sex trade in Thailand it is a no brainer to find them and talk to them. Go out and do it.

You are a reporter for Agence France-Presse in Bangkok, I’m sure you speak fluent Thai go out and talk to the women and get us a story. That is what reporters get paid to do. Go out and get stories. So go.

Edited July 29, 2010 by mark45y

[zzaa09]

Thank you Mark, for calling these people {and related circles} out. You'll find that these subject matters tend to be investigated rather poorly and perpetuated myths akin to over dramatics and political correctness...

[Jingthing]

Hey, hack writers have to eat too.

[mark45y]

Thank you Mark, for calling these people {and related circles} out. You'll find that these subject matters tend to be investigated rather poorly and perpetuated myths akin to over dramatics and political correctness...

I worked in journalism for a number of years a long time ago. I would never have been able to run a story without at least the basics. Good writing comes after you have covered the who, what, where, when, why and how. Without that the story is meaningless. Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. One would think they would have higher standards.

[Slip]

LOL- I still teach the WH- 'reporter questions' as just that- Imagine you're a journalist etc.

Sadly, journalists seem to have forgotten them these days.

I'm no journo but I agree with you entirely Mark.

P.S. Could the BBC PLEASE stop splitting infinitives. Sorry-

[lazygourmet]

This story is remembering me Marie-France Botte saga, who came here, at the end of the nineties...

To make a long story short, she ended up supplying the people that she was targeting

[CHdiver]

Mark45, maybe, just maybe, the do not have enough knowledge about it to judge carefully enough if the written stuff is acurate? So they trust there Correspondant over here about it. Or they just do not care as it is a easy target and popular. It is all about the headline if you want to sell something.

[BigPanda]

You guys really lack knowledge... Writing about this subject is not an easy task as many are scared to speak. Let me tell you that people involved are high in the military and you don't make a story as easy as you think about this.

If you can do so much better why don't you do it, let's see if you get published...

Edited July 29, 2010 by BigPanda

[moe666]

Why let a few details get in the way of a headline.

[mark45y]

You guys really lack knowledge... Writing about this subject is not an easy task as many are scared to speak. Let me tell you that people involved are high in the military and you don't make a story as easy as you think about this.

If you can do so much better why don't you do it, let's see if you get published...

You know the writer, OK, I’ll tell you. 1. Verify the statistics she quotes from the ILO, 2005 is not recent enough to be worthy of note. How did they get the figures she quotes. The ILO says they don’t have any accurate numbers why would she quote a number if she knew it was not accurate?

2. She says “young girls are also ensnared in Thailand's vast sex industry.” Did she make that up? If she know young girls are ensnared in Thailand’s vast sex industry where are they working? In what town? For who? Who, what, where, when, why and how. A reporter can’t just make up stuff.

3. If she knows for a fact that young girls are working as slaves in Thailand’s vast sex industry she must know who, what, where, when, why and how. If she doesn’t know then she is fabricating a story. If she does know she should report it. The answer seems simple.

4. I don’t think she has any factual evidence of slaves working in Thailand’s sex industry. I think she is making it up.

5. It may be difficult to report a story but that does not mean it is OK to make it up.

6. You said “you guys really lack knowledge” I would submit you should read the article before you accuse anyone of lacking knowledge.

7. You further state, “let me tell you that people involved are high in the military and you don't make a story as easy as you think about this.” I agree but that does not mean it is OK to make a story up.

8. You further state, “If you can do so much better why don't you do it, let's see if you get published.” Sure I could but there is no female slavery in Thailand’s vast sex industry that relates to Falang customers. That’s the truth but who wants to hear it?

Feel free to give the author my name and tell her to PM me. I would be more than happy to tell her how to investigate her story. I have lived in Bangkok for a year, Pattaya and surrounding area for 4 years and Chiang Mai for 2 years.

[Thongkorn]

There has been many Good journalist around the world , Many have told the truth and proved it with there facts, Like Thailand many people who support the slave trade are high in the government, And like I said at the beginning, there are many good journalist around the world , but a lot are dead now because they dared to expose the guilty people,

[DP25]

You are a reporter for Agence France-Presse in Bangkok, I’m sure you speak fluent Thai go out and talk to the women and get us a story.

None of the western 'journalists' speak Thai. Most couldn't order fried rice. There seem to be two types of journalists covering Thailand. The first type sees the place as a backwater and wants to get out of here and to some more prestigious locations as soon as possible, and will sensationalise everything to gain the media exposure necessary to get moved to London or New York or wherever. The second type is short on cash and desperate to stay in Thailand, and needs to write whatever it takes to pay the bills and support his lifestyle here. There are a couple of westerners that do inciteful analysis and can speak the language but you will never find any of them in the major news companies.

Actualy there is a third type. Parachute journalists that basically go on vacation for a week and write up some druge afterwards to pay for their trip

Edited August 1, 2010 by DP25

[IanForbes]

You touched on some valid points, Mark. For 30 years I was a magazine writer and I know the value of checking your facts. In my 30 years of writing I only relied on hearsay twice and both times I got stung. I just reported what had been told me by someone who should have known. As it turned out they DIDN'T know what they were talking about and I took the fall. After that I did ALL my own research. Now that I am writing books I have to check my own facts continually. And, that takes time. Writers should stay away from topics they know little about other than hearsay and a few brief interviews. If they want to write fiction then by all means do so, but it should be clearly stated before being published.

[IanForbes]

Actualy there is a third type. Parachute journalists that basically go on vacation for a week and write up some druge afterwards to pay for their trip

Bingo! That covers so many foreign writers I can't list them all. I'm an outdoor writer and read crappy reports by so called big name writers all the time. They come to British Columbia with their family on a holiday, talk to a sporting goods store clerk and make notes on what he tells them. Then they fill in the gaps with run of the mill stuff and slip in a few "stock" photos that could be from anywhere. The magazine accepts it as a reliable piece and nobody is the wiser except the locals who actually know the area.

[smokie36]

On one of my early trips to Thailand I was taken to a karaoke bar by a thai aquaintance not being familiar with the nature of these places. This was a Thai bar with girls of dubious age and I had a beer declined their services and left. I'm not sure a western female could gain access to such a scene but I guess that's why I'm not an investigative reporter.

Well done Mark for highlighting this issue which does exist but needs far better reporting to have any effect within South East Asia in general.

[mark45y]

I would like to respond directly to Kelly Macnamera but I can't find an email address for her. I looked at AFP and they don't seem to have a contact address either. It would be nice to hear her side of the story.

[zzaa09]

You touched on some valid points, Mark. For 30 years I was a magazine writer and I know the value of checking your facts. In my 30 years of writing I only relied on hearsay twice and both times I got stung. I just reported what had been told me by someone who should have known. As it turned out they DIDN'T know what they were talking about and I took the fall. After that I did ALL my own research. Now that I am writing books I have to check my own facts continually. And, that takes time. Writers should stay away from topics they know little about other than hearsay and a few brief interviews. If they want to write fiction then by all means do so, but it should be clearly stated before being published.

Unfortunately, this is become more common place and commonly accepted. Editing policies background research have become quite pathetic throughout the print and electronic worlds.

[dom samui]

Lot of interesting here for those who...

http://www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/tra_sexual_thailand_0708.pdf

[MiG16]

sorry, but as have been said in the past, please do not start a new thread to discuss the content of an existing one

on that note, this one is closed.

cheers