How the foreign desk has adapted to lockdown

One of the ways we have got round this is tapping into our network of freelancers, who have been invaluable in sharing perspectives from around the world, writes Gemma Fox

A train from Rajasthan arrives in West Bengal earlier this month: our Asia editor has also found traveling a challenge (Reuters)

With schools and shops soon to reopen in the UK, I figure it will not be long until the rest of us have to go back into the office.

It’s been over two months since the Independent has worked from home (or, 45 zoom calls) and while I do not miss the freezing cold rooms during a night shift or the lack of natural light, it’s been difficult not to be in the same room as your colleagues.

We’ve had to adapt to this new way of working and ensure we continue to deliver agenda-setting coverage on one of the biggest news stories for a generation.

Some might assume the foreign desk was better equipped for this, and in many ways it was. Our correspondents across the world were already set up on the systems and used to remote working, as well as dealing with colleagues in a different time zone.

But everyone – editor and correspondents alike – has had to work under lockdown.

For journalists who thrive best when out on the streets finding stories and speaking to the public, this was undoubtedly a challenge, coupled with changes to home life and the inevitable strain on mental health.

One of our journalists had just moved to a new country and had the unenviable task of dealing with shipping and ordering new furniture in a lockdown.

In India, our Asia editor has had to find new ways to travel around after Uber, rickshaws, metros, and private taxi companies were banned.

In London, I have at least been allowed to go outside for a daily run, much to the envy of my colleague in Moscow, stuck indoors.

Foreign trips have also been scuppered with air travel no longer an option. One of the ways we have got round this is tapping into our excellent network of freelancers, who have been invaluable in sharing vital perspectives on how the world is dealing with this unprecedented challenge.

We have also found novel ways of telling stories: refugees in Lebanon recording videos to show how impossible it is to be socially distant in a camp; a Skype interview with a patient inside an Italian hospital... even sending our Moscow correspondent “undercover” in a coronavirus hospital.

But as lockdowns across the world slowly begin to ease, I’m sure I speak for the whole desk when I say we look forward to some form of return to normal.

Yours,

Gemma Fox

Deputy international editor