Reporting on Afghanistan

By Nick Merrett

Mark Corcoran is a journalist for Foreign Correspondent, a weekly current affairs program on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Recently he visited Afghanistan to document its heroin trade. Nick Merrett asks him about his trip and approach to reporting for Foreign Correspondent.

Were you able to interview Haji Bashar, a drug baron in Southern Afghanistan, who is the focal point in one of your stories on Afghanistan?
MC: "No, primarily because he had given orders to his gunmen to shoot any journalists who kept annoying him. It was one of those stories where no one wants to talk because they’re all afraid of the drug barons in Afghanistan. It was a bit like going to Colombia and wanting to do a story on Pablo Escobar a few years ago".

How did you contact people like Haji Bashar? Did you use a phone or fax machine?
MC: "Quite often they don’t have a phone and there are no fax lines. We usually go through third parties, through people who may understand what we are doing, and quite often that is a difficult concept to get across: people don’t understand the format we work in, which is TV current affairs. That’s different to doing a newspaper or radio piece, or writing a book. We use intermediaries who are known to both parties. We would then have a meeting without cameras and just explain. But it does vary a lot. There are no 20 points to being a foreign correspondent".

How do you deal with evasive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ replies?
MC: "You just try to draw them out. You try to frame the questions so you don’t get those answers. Ask them ‘Please explain why’, not ‘is this the case’? You’ve got to frame your question in a way they know they’ve got to give a broader answer. Don’t box yourself in". Some of the most difficult interviews were with people in wars or natural disaster areas. "Once in Turkey, after an earthquake, I was trying to talk to people about their emotions. When someone close to them has been killed or maimed, and they’re obviously suffering, eliciting facts or information from them is very difficult".

Mr. Corcoran said language was another significant hurdle in preparing a story. "We have ‘fixers’ or translators. But through a translation, an interview tends to lose its energy and it’s dynamic. You can’t respond or object. You’re not sure you’re getting a 100% accurate translation".

He adds that "there are no fast rules" to determine if certain questions are too sensitive or dangerous to ask. "It depends on how talkative ‘the talent’ is. It depends on the subject matter that you’re covering. It depends on whether it’s going to be a friendly or confrontational interview- someone who’s agreed to talk but doesn’t really want to say much. There are just so many variables".

Were you ever too afraid to ask certain questions?
MC: "Well we’re not dealing with an Australian environment. We’re dealing with places where there is often conflict, where there is tension, and people can be disturbed. There are certain questions you couldn’t ask because they could get extremely violent. But you’ve got to play it by ear. Don’t ask stupid questions because you’ll probably get more than a stupid response. And you do get to know how people are going to respond. You get a feel for it.It just comes with experience: knowing what to ask and when".

The most challenging aspects of his job, Corcoran says, are "getting to the location, getting the access, and getting the people when you’re there. For the stories I do, I like to go to areas that haven’t been widely canvassed, or cover issues that haven’t been widely reported. The easy ones have already been done, by virtue that they’re easy to get to, or that the story is easy. The hardest stories take a lot of time and energy. There is no guarantee that you’re going to get the story, either, when you’re there. There are a whole range of reasons why people may not want to talk to you, or give you access to a particular location. These are perhaps the two biggest hurdles. But once you sit people down, generally they’ll want to talk to you, they’ll want to say something. But it can sometimes be a long hard road getting there," he laughs.