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Ricardo Sandoval is Assistant City Editor at the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He supervises the paper’s environment, science and regional development teams of reporters. Before joining The Bee, Sandoval was a foreign correspondent, based in Mexico City, for the Dallas Morning News and Knight Ridder Newspapers. Sandoval was born in Mexico and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated with a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in Northern California. His career has spanned three decades and has included award-winning coverage of California agriculture, immigration, the savings and loan scandal and the deregulation of public utility companies. His list of awards includes the Overseas Press Club, the InterAmerican Press Club, the Gerald Loeb prize for business journalism and two honors from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Sandoval co-authored — with his wife, journalist Susan Ferriss — the biography “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement” published in 1997 by Harcourt.
Ronnie Lovler is associate director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University. She is also senior writer for the nonprofit Newsdesk.org, and its public-interest news service, “News You Might Have Missed”. In addition to serving as international committee chair, Ronnie is a member of the executive board of the northern California chapter of SPJ. Ronnie taught journalism at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida before moving to San Francisco.
International Journalism
International Journalism FAQ
Q: Do I need a visa to come to the United States
if I'm a European journalist and only staying for a few days?
Q: I am an Italian journalist. I would like
to know if in your country journalists are allowed to access monuments, museums
and other attractions with free or discounted tickets.
Q: I'm a freelancer. What happens if I'm
killed or wounded while on assignment overseas?
Q: I'm going into a warzone. Should I bring
a gun for self-protection?
Q: Do I need a visa to come to the United
States if I'm a European journalist and only staying for a few days?
A: Yes. All journalists visiting the US for reasons related to
journalism, even for short stays and from friendly countries, are required to
obtain visas before coming here. The SPJ is currently working to extend the
Visa Waiver Program, which applies to visiting tourists
and businesspeople, to include journalists as well.
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Q: I am an Italian journalist. I work
for some newspapers in Italy and also as a freelance. I have planned a trip
in U.S. Probably I will collect some material for a future reportage. I would
like to know if in your country journalists are allowed to access monuments,
museums and other attractions with free or discounted tickets. Obviously I have
a Professional Card released by the Italian “Ordine Nazionale dei Giornalisti”,
our professional association.
Answer: As a general rule, journalists do not get any special
access to tourist destinations, and there is no national journalism accreditation.
There are two exceptions:
1. If you're covering a story that takes place inside an attraction.
For example, when the Associated Press sent me out to a local amusement park
where some people were injured on a ride, I called the manager, who met me at
a rear entrance and took me to see the ride that had the problem. I asked him
questions, and talked to a couple of riders, then left to file the story.
2. If you're a travel writer and the owners or managers of a particular
attraction want to see a good article in your publication, they may give you
complementary tickets. In this case, travel writers contact the owners or managers
ahead of time, explain what their publication is (possibly send copies) and
explain that they have an assignment to write about their attraction. Usually,
a letter of assignment is required, or at least a good track record of writing
and publishing similar articles.
In both cases, however, the journalists would be acting as journalists
— interviewing people, taking notes, gathering background information, and
so on.
There are other ways to get discounts while traveling. Many organizations,
such as AAA (American Automobile Association) and the AARP (American Association
of Retired Persons) get volume discounts for their members. The Society of Professional
Journalists, as well, offers discounts on such services as car rental. See this page for more details.
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Q: I'm a freelancer. What happens if I'm
killed or wounded while on assignment overseas?
A: Some countries, such as Lebanon, require
the purchase of special insurance before getting accreditation as a journalist.
In other cases, local military officials, aid organizations, or your country's
embassy may work to get you or your body out and back home. Many freelancers
going into conflict situations cross their fingers and hope for the best.
A lightly saner alternative — the sanest, of course, would be
to stay out of places where you're likely to get killed or wounded — is to
buy emergency medical evacuation and repatriation insurance.
It can be hard to find an insurance company
that looks kindly on people going into war zones, but they do exist. Aid organizations,
for example, are frequent customers, as are missionaries.
The SPJ does not endorse any particular company's
coverage, but here are some places to start:
— Reporters Without Borders
— Safe Passage International
— WorldTravelCenter.com
— International Risk Management
— Specialty Risk International
— International Medical Group
If you or your organization can't afford coverage, you might want
to reconsider the trip. Also see our war journalism resources
page.
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Q: I'm going into a warzone. Should I bring a gun for self-protection?
A: Absolutely not, says combat photographer Sallie Shatz. If you
are stopped and you have a firearm, you've just turned a tenuous situation into
a hostile one. "What are you going to do, shoot your way out of the country?"
she asks. Carrying firearms can compromise your role as a journalist, or can
make it seem as if you are compromised. A better alternative is to carry plenty
of paper with official stamps. If the pen is mightier than the sword, then a
good stamped document is mightier than a bullet.
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