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Case Studies: Freedom and Responsibility
But Smith has no idea what happened
to the two women. He fears that they
might have been punished, especially
the one who didn’t tell her captors he
was a reporter.
“As someone who had lived in Central
Europe for many years, knew
languages fluently and was very
familiar with this problem, I believed
that I was prepared for this story,”
Smith said. “I was wrong and now I
have to live with the fact that a girl
was at least beaten, thanks to me.”
Smith said he learned several lessons
from the experience and from others
he has had covering the issue. First,
he would never again attempt to
interview two women at once. He now
knows that one of them might well
“inform” on the other one. He said it’s
important to act as much like a real
client as possible. That means
working quickly, not hanging around
asking a lot of questions before
attempting to be alone with a victim.
“You need to be a John,” Smith said,
using the English term for a client of
prostitutes. “Act like a John.”
Does that mean going so far as to
sleep with the women he is
interviewing? No, Smith said. First, he
believes it’s not necessary to actually
have sex to convince the people
outside the door that he’s an ordinary
client. And second, he believes it’s
wrong.
“You cannot have sex with her,” he
said. “That violates everything you are
trying to do. You become part of the
problem.”
Smith is adamant that victims of
trafficking should never be identified
by name, and he would never publish
a photo of a victim in which she could
be identified. Like any journalist, he
prefers to identify his sources clearly,
but this is one situation in which
anonymity is justified, he said.
One of the most difficult questions
Smith has faced is whether to help a
woman get out of her situation if she
asks for help. Doing so is tempting, he
said, but extremely risky both to the
reporter and to the victim. When a
woman asks him for help, Smith
promises to tell trustworthy authorities
(usually an international organization,
not local police) her name, location
and predicament.
“In general, I believe rescue efforts
should be left to police, but I now
know of two cases in Poland and one
case in Macedonia where “Johns”
pulled out women by using their wits,”
Smith said. “This is very, very risky,
however, and you have absolutely
crossed the line where journalism
stops, and you have become too close
to the story.”
Smith admits that any attempt to
interview victims while doing a story
about trafficking is risky. But he
believes that his readers need to know
about the scourge of trafficking, and
the only way to make them care
enough to do something about it is to
tell the stories of the victims. He
intends to continue covering the issue
and talking to victims—but more
carefully than he did in the case
described above.
Questions for Discussion
1. Was Smith wrong to try to
interview victims of trafficking while
posing as a client? Was there any
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