Naqeebulla Sherzad is an Afghan fixer. He worked with Ajmal Naskhbandi, the fixer beheaded by the Taliban in 2007, and who inspired the formation of the Frontline Fixer’s Fund – 100% of funds raised are given to the families of fixers killed or injured while working with international media – After being told his name was on a Taliban "death list", Naqeebulla decided to leave Afghanistan. He finally wound up in Sweden where life has a different set of problems. He tells his story on the Committee to Protect Journalists site today,

Now I study the Swedish language and I’m trying to make my way back to journalism. I am not happy but I am safe. There are many things that make me unhappy. For example, losing my profession, which was dangerous, yes, but I wanted to improve and become a formal journalist. Leaving my family behind; they are still suffering because of my experience. And I am living alone in a different society, which sometimes makes me sick (Sweden can be dark and freezing cold).

There are some major problems too. I have not yet been issued an ID or a bank account, which are very necessary. I have applied for both, but the office that issue IDs refused to issue me one because I have no family members to certify that I am who I say I am. It is really hard to resettle in a new country, especially when you don’t speak the language and don’t come from a similar culture and traditions. I still have to find a part-time job to support my family.

For me, it is now impossible to return to my home country, since a documentary about Ajmal’s murder has been shown around the world (Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi)–I know they would find me and kill me. Because I am safe here, I will go through all these difficulties in exile and settle in at some point. But the loss of my friend and being lonely and worrying about my family’s security makes me depressed. link

You can donate to the Frontline Club Fixer’s Fund through our the Frontline Club Charity Giving account.

Jonathan Miller writes about the "secret weapon" of television news on the Channel 4 World News blog. He’s talking about the fixers he’s worked with in the DRC, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Pakistan, Serbia and Sudan. "When fixers deliver," Miller says, "We make good telly,"

Fixers are all-too-often the unsung heros of our business. They work long hours in sometimes dangerous places. They take risks simply doing what they do. At times, they’re tainted by association with us and have to live with the consequences – long after the foreign journalists they’d been working with have gone.

At times, for example in Zimbabwe, they work with us undercover. If they’re caught, as one of my ITV colleagues pointed out during last night’s awards ceremony, there’s no friendly foreign embassy to bail them out. We pay our fixers well – but I’ve never met one who was only in it for the money. link via @worldnewsblog

This week the Channel 4 team won the award for best International News Coverage at the Royal Television Society awards this week for its reporting of the crisis in the DRC. An award, Miller says, that would not have been possible without the help of the team’s fixer, Robert Chamwami. The Frontline Fixer’s Fund, see the video above, was set up to help the families of those fixers who are killed doing their job.

If you’ve nipped into the Frontline Club recently you might have noticed the Fixers Fund gift donation envelopes, on the stairs, at the bar and in the forum. We’ve also put together a short video explaining more about the fund and how it was started following the murder of Ajmal Naqshbandi. Afghan journalist and fixer Najibullah Razzaq discusses the importance of their job along with BBC journalists Alan Little, Jeremy Bowen and Martin Bell. You can donate to the fund on the Charity Giving website.

Raed Atharmneh works as a fixer in the Gaza strip. Al Jazeera put together a documentary about him in 2007. It’s a timely reminder of the work of fixers and journalists in Gaza at a time when many media outlets can’t even access Gaza to report on the war. You can watch part one above and part two below,

Foreign reporters in conflict zones often rely on local ‘fixers’ – people who earn a living helping journalists get their stories. Raed Atharmneh is a fixer living and working in the Gaza Strip.
Filmmaker George Azar chose to film Raed’s daily life as he works to provide for 42 clan members. It was supposed to be a straightforward story.
But Raed’s world was about to be turned upside down by a terrible event which put Raed – albeit very briefly – at the very centre of international media attention. link

Correspondents from television networks and newspapers all over the world arrive in a dangerous war-zone. They may be eager and intelligent journalists, but they usually do not speak the language of the country they’ve come to. Nor can they know the culture. Even experienced journalists who have paid frequent visits, even those based there for a few years, cannot have inside knowledge of the place and its people – and, perhaps more importantly, the antennae that quiver when something feels wrong. That is a gift that fixers possess.

“They see what we don’t,” an experienced war correspondent explained to me. “We couldn’t do our job without them. Unsung heroes.”

Their importance has not been rewarded commensurately. The usual formula was for foreign television teams to drop in, pay inadequately for their fixers’ services, and leave the scene. In particular, fixers were not covered by any insurance. If the glamorous reporter whose face appeared on the screen were to be blown up or injured, his or her family would be entitled to generous compensation. A fixer’s family would have nothing. link

In the wake of the killing of Ajmal Naqshbandi in Afghanistan in March, 2007, the Frontline Club set up the Fixer’s Fund to help these “unsung heroes”. You can donate here.

“If proof of their involvement in the kidnapping exists, it should be presented to a judge,” said Reporters Without Borders in a statement. “But it seems more and more evident that their prolonged detention is a mistake.”
Fung herself said in a CBC interview the two brothers were not involved in her abduction, noting they had worked for three years with the CBC. link

What begins as an intimate portrait of two colleagues at work turns dark when Taliban fighters in Southern Afghanistan kidnap Ajmal and an Italian journalist during a dangerous trip to interview a high-level commander. What follows is the tragic story of one man forgotten in the crossfire set against a failing state slowly losing the faith of its people. link

Jeremy Gerard provides an update on the fixer known only as Ahmed Ali. A few months ago things weren’t looking good for Ali and his new life in America. However, things are picking up for the man who helped Oliver Poole work as a journalist in Iraq and who features in his Red Zone book,

“My daughter just passed from first grade to second, and my wife just got her driver’s permit,” Ali told me in a telephone interview. “And last week they were talking about giving me a full-time job.”
Ali, 35, spent most of the early years of this decade as a “fixer” for British and American journalists covering the Iraq war, first in Baghdad and then, after his brother-in-law was murdered by Shia militiamen, in Damascus. He worked as a translator, putting himself in grave danger by setting up interviews for reporters and helping to get the words of Iraqis into the newspapers and magazines. link

Daoud Hari, author of The Translator, is profiled in the Daily Telegraph during a book promotion trip to New York. After his village in Darfur was attacked by Janjaweed militia he took to helping NGOs and foreign journalists get the story out. He became a fixer.

‘The journalists were very different from the NGO people,’ Hari says, the limousine now speeding through New Jersey. ‘NGOs need lots of planning, lots of rules, a big programme they have to follow. The journalists are adventurers. They just call me up and say, “Let’s go.” They put themselves in dangerous situations. They like risk. They like to drink a lot, also. They are good people, but maybe they don’t like their life.’ link via deejackson

As journalists who report from abroad, we all know the value of colleagues who often go unsung – the fixers and translators and drivers who take such great personal risks and who work with such devotion to make what we do possible.
Whatever abilities we might have, we absolutely need the assistance of people who know the language and the culture and how to navigate hostile terrain.
I donâ€t know how many times Iâ€ve only been as good as my driver. They love their countries. They truly value journalism. When we leave, they stay.
I think it is only fitting that I dedicate this award to our colleagues from foreign lands who have given us all so much. via Thomas Crampton

The above clip is from James Nachtwey’s War Photographer documentary.