Our guest this episode has some advice for international journalists working abroad: “If you work with local journalists, give them a byline – they’re not your free fixers. The security of locals is more important than any story. And YOU, international journalist, you are not the story.”
And she would know. Award-winning journalist and communications consultant Zaina Erhaim comes from Idlib in northern Syria. She got started in journalism covering the Syrian revolution and the civil war that followed. Her reporting made her a target, and she left Syria in 2016. She now lives in the UK, where she continues to mentor Syrian journalists and report on the Middle East. In this interview she shares razor sharp insights into reporting on conflict, while upholding the dignity of sources and collaborators.
More content from this blog
- Israeli Elections: Is Netanyahu’s Time Finally Up? Interview with Joshua Leifer – 14 July 2026
- Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011. Young Mizrahi Israelis’ Open Letter to Arab Peers – 19 April 2011
- For a Consistently Democratic and Internationalist Left – 10 December 2023
- The Israeli Embassy Murders as a Rorschach Test, by Alexander Reid Ross – 3 June 2025
- Interview with Taras Bilous – 24 February 2026
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