More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 92

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.

IN most war situations, all the warring parties tend to introduce their own press accreditation.

Most of us had to flog our way around the country either with the correct ID or en route to its collection.

That was often a Catch 22 situation. I well remember two days sitting at the Bosnian-Serb border at Bosanska Gradiska on the River Sava anxious to go to State HQ in Pale to cover elections there. “No, it is forbidden to travel to Pale without the correct papers.”

Fine, where are they issued? In Pale, of course. And without the papers you can’t go there.