When the editorial collective recently assigned us to each tell of a story that was bordering on the personal, an armed robbery at Mantshole near Pienaarsrivier came to mind.
At the time someone close to my heart had become the victim of an armed robbery.
It was a difficult choice between being a journalist, and also an acquaintance of a family that was going through trauma.
Writing the story made me feel like I was invasive, if not insensitive.
Luckily, the family and the victim were quite open about the whole thing.
Another article which somewhat dragged me, the journalist, to become part of the story was the one on the arrest and subsequent court appearance of four Bela-Bela police officers in recent
weeks.
Before the news broke out, I had known on a personal level two of the gentlemen.
You can just imagine what it felt like writing such as story about people I knew personally.
But as the editors are wont to say; shying away from stories means you are in a wrong job.
It became even more difficult when I had to make eye contact with the four former officers — in terms of taking pictures — when they were brought to court for the first time.
— The BEAT
