More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 62

Over the next few weeks, allmediascotland.com is to publish, each weekday, edited extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris. ‘More thrills than skills: A half-life in journalism’, is being scheduled for publication next year.

I PUT my paltry income together from as wide a variety of sources as possible, bearing in mind that I have to cover the costs of my airfares, maintenance of the car (expensive), petrol (at a premium price), hotel and accommodations, food, film, maintenance and repair of camera equipment (frequent), fees for accreditations, interpreters as necessary, and so on.

The list seemed endless sometimes. Just about the only thing that was free were those flights on UN aircraft into Sarajevo and the occasional chopper ride, courtesy of obliging British forces.