AP PAKISTAN REPORTER GETS $500 FOR BHUTTO-IS-DEAD SCOOP
January 7th 2008 04:25
AP reporter Zarar Khan, the first reporter to confirm that Benazir Bhutto had been killed, was paid an extra $US500 for the scoop.
Poynter republished this internal memo from Associated Press: “With no car available, Khan ran until he flagged down a passing motorcyclist who took him the rest of the one-mile journey. Then he talked his way past police at the gate, past a Bhutto guard at the door and finally got inside the annex to the operating theater.
“There a party aide confirmed that Bhutto was in serious condition and undergoing surgery. Khan phoned in that news (on a borrowed cell phone, since his had been lost in the bombing chaos) and then, when a doctor emerged and spoke to weeping party leaders, Khan learned from Bhutto's personal secretary that she had died. He got confirmation and time of death from a second party aide, while correspondent Munir Ahmad in the Islamabad bureau got further confirmation from a military source.
Feedbitz said the memo concludes by saying that Khan won a weekly prize of $500.
- From MediaBlab
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