TWO award-winning journalists who left The Herald recently are to team up to travel the world and report on human rights abuses.
Reporter, Billy Briggs, and photographer, Angela Catlin, are to visit regions such as South America and Central Asia to cover issues that in the UK receive little press exposure.
Briggs and Catlin have previously worked together on a number of projects producing reportage on topics such as the plight of the Roma (aka Gypsies) in Slovakia and the rise of neo-Nazism in Russia.
For the latter they spent a week in Moscow interviewing fascists and the victims of racist attacks and their work was recognised recently by Amnesty International through two awards.
Briggs was also runner-up for Amnesty International’s Gaby Rado Memorial Award for a series of reports on human rights issues in The Herald Magazine. Catlin has worked in places such as Colombia, Rwanda and Cambodia, and has been voted UK Feature Photographer of the Year and Scottish Photographer of the Year on two occasions.
She received a special award this year for her photography in Banda Aceh following the Tsunami.
Says Briggs: “We are working on a number of projects but would like anyone who has knowledge of an issue that has not received attention to contact us – see www.billybriggs.co.uk. We are also seeking sponsorship from ethically-minded businesses.”
Added Catlin: “This is an opportunity to highlight forgotten human rights issues around the world.”
Both journalists took voluntary redundancy from The Herald recently in order to freelance.
They have been in talks with human rights organisations and several publications are interested in publishing their work.
