Joyce Davis  On Coverage


BEAT TALK

My beat is always the Middle East, basically everything that you know of it, including North Africa, and all of the African, you know, sub-Sahara and Africa. I also am responsible for India and Pakistan, but we don't really have a lot of reporters there, so that doesn't involve very much. Basically I'm covering, I was in charge of the Persian Gulf War, I'd been here about six weeks when Saddam invaded Kuwait so that kept me busy for at least two years, and after that of course, we had Somalia recently, and I was basically in charge of coordinating that coverage. So right now things are a little slow except Somalia is heating up again. But it's never dull in those two parts of the world, for sure.

TRAVELING REPORTERS FOR NPR

When they're big stories, like the Persian Gulf War, or Somalia even, reporters everywhere, wherever we have them in the world, are switched to that part of the world. So whoever was in Europe at the time, or in Asia, in fact, Debra Wong, who is our reporter actually based in Hong Kong, was sent to Somalia. So that's how we cover the big things. Wherever they are we send them, even if they're in Washington. For normal news, we have right now two reporters based in Africa and I'm using a stringer as well, to try to cover Central Africa. In the Middle East, we have a stringer contract reporter in Jerusalem, we have a stringer in Egypt, and one in Tunisia. So we use basically stringers. We'd like to get more staff people in, but we're working on that. Money. (Laughs.) It's always the problem.

TRAVELING REPORTERS FOR NPR

When they're big stories, like the Persian Gulf War, or Somalia even, reporters everywhere, wherever we have them in the world, are switched to that part of the world. So whoever was in Europe at the time, or in Asia, in fact, Debra Wong, who is our reporter actually based in Hong Kong, was sent to Somalia. So that's how we cover the big things. Wherever they are we send them, even if they're in Washington. For normal news, we have right now two reporters based in Africa and I'm using a stringer as well, to try to cover Central Africa. In the Middle East, we have a stringer contract reporter in Jerusalem, we have a stringer in Egypt, and one in Tunisia. So we use basically stringers. We'd like to get more staff people in, but we're working on that. Money. (Laughs.) It's always the problem.

TOUGH SITUATIONS

In Somalia, for example, it's very dangerous. And they never knew if there'd be enough food and water. So our team of people really worked round the clock under the most horrible conditions, even having a gun turned on them by the people that were guarding them. So it's not fun, unless you really wanna do this, and you have the stuff it takes to stick it out.

BEHIND THE GENERAL PERCEPTION

Ah, well, we did that, we did one based in the Sudan. The second one, which was quite controversial, was on female circumcision. And that ran on "Morning Edition." And basically, what we went into that story saying, "How can Islam allow women to mutilate themselves?" Well, Islam doesn't allow women to mutilate themselves! In fact, Islam clearly says it doesn't. But somehow, it's gotten confused between culture and religion. The culture said, yes, women should circumcise themselves, and it keeps you clean, and it reduces a woman's sex drive and all that. But Islam clearly forbids it. And this is the confusion. People thought Islam didn't. And then there was another one on polygamy that we did, which was a fascinating story. Again, I thought, horror of polygamy, but we went to a family that had three wives, and ten children, and at least they seemed to be working it out, to be getting along. It was their choice of lifestyle. And then we did one set in Malaysia, and Indonesia, where we just took a look at what it's like in that culture, where women actually have been known to be...I mean they're matriarchal societies, in Indonesia, and even in Malaysia. So how does this jibe with what they're doing?

KNOWING DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

Well, it helps when I'm in the field, because I can ask for a Coca-Cola. It helps to be able to talk to people and it helps to be able to read in different languages. I would not give up knowing the languages that I know. All the work I've put into it, I'm really appreciative of it. And language is a continuing battle. French, I'm constantly trying to perfect that, Spanish as well, I'm studying Arabic now, too, because I find that for the Middle East I really need to know that. So I'm three years into Arabic study, and probably have a good five more to go! But it's a continuing struggle.