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This collection marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding in 1958 of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of South Asia (FCA)—renamed the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) in 1991.
Foreign correspondents travel the world, report on people and events and have hundreds of thousands (in some cases millions) of readers or viewers. South Asia is a specially favoured assignment because of the immensity of the story. It is a place where politics and major events unfold on the streets, not just in closed rooms. This book, with its collection of reportage, comment and photographs, reflects this story. It does not seek to cover every event in the decades since 1947, but focuses instead on good writing and historic moments that give a picture of how foreign correspondents have covered the region.
When news reporting began from India two centuries ago, despatches from Calcutta, then the capital, took four months to reach the English port of Falmouth; today e-mail and mobile phones allow events to be relayed almost as they happen. But while news can be disseminated quickly, foreign correspondents still undertake in-depth reportage, which may involve weeks of research and travel. The job can also be dangerous, even life-threatening. This collection includes two Wall Street Journal articles by Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed by Islamic militants in 2002.
In this volume, foreign correspondents cover subjects as diverse as tiger hunts, religious fanaticism and the Indian enthusiasm for P G Wodehouse. Peter Kann’s Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the fall of Dhaka in 1971 and Barbara Crossette’s eyewitness report of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination are two justly celebrated pieces, but all the contributions bring to life the subcontinent’s recent—and dramatic—histories.
It has been said that journalism is ‘the first draft of history’—incomplete, momentary, often opinionated, but history-in-the-making nonetheless. This illustrated anthology of great reportage, analysis, writing and stories that demand your attention, is a vivid and valuable ‘draft report’.
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About the Editors
John Elliott is the president of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of South Asia. He is Fortune magazine’s India correspondent, has written for the Economist and was formerly with the Financial Times in India (1983-88) and elsewhere.
Bernard Imhasly is a former FCC president, and was the South Asia correspondent for the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung from 1990 to 2007. He is the author of Goodbye to Gandhi? (Penguin India 2007).
Simon Denyer is Reuters bureau chief for India and Nepal. He ran the Pakistan and Afghanistan bureaux for two years and has also been based in London, New York and Nairobi.
Contributors
Arthur Bonner; Henry Bradsher; Dean Brelis; John F. Burns; James Cameron; Françoise Chipaux; James Clad; Barbara Crossette; Simon Denyer; Edward W. Desmond; Suman Dubey; Celia W. Dugger; John Elliott; George Evans; Adrienne Farrell; Mark Fineman; Trevor Fishlock; Peter Foster; Edward A. Gargan; Amelia Gentleman; Suzanne Goldenberg; Michael Hamlyn; Selig S. Harrison; Erhard Haubold; Peter Hess; David Housego; Olaf Ihlau; Bernard Imhasly; Peter Jackson; Jo Johnson; Ivor Jones; Peter R. Kann; Manjeet Kripalani; Daniel Lak; John Lancaster; David Loyn; Edward Luce; Arthur Max; Neville Maxwell; Sudip Mazumdar; Tim McGirk; Matt Miller; David Orr; Daniel Pearl; Alex Perry; Peter Popham; Gerald Priestland; Maseeh Rahman; Padma Rao; Phil Reeves; John Rogers; Matthew Rosenberg; Somini Sengupta; K.K. Sharma; Lewis M. Simons; John Slee; John Stackhouse; Robert Stimson; Tiziano Terzani; Mark Tully; Stephan Wagstyl; Julian West; Charles Wheeler; Andrew Whitehead; Peter Wonacott; John Zubrzycki
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