This article initially would be published on the website of my studies, but due to some problems I have to publish it here. Enjoy!
From having a dinner together with Yesser Arafat, the former president of the Palestinian areas, to hanging on a jeep what is speeding very fast while escaping from an attack. The life of Bud Wichers isn’t that boring at all. The 42-years-old journalist has years of experience in covering stories in war zones. Where did he do his job? And what is his purpose of making those risky stories?
Although Wichers is born in Jakarta (Indonesia), he has been raised in a small village in the eastern part of The Netherlands. He currently lives in Indonesia with his girlfriend, a formal professional swimmer and actor for Dutch soap series (Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden and Onderweg naar Morgen). Together, they have established Mijn Roots, a foundation that organises reunions between adopted children. Besides of his volunteer work, Wichers is a journalist and he covers stories from war zones.
He is a freelance reporter and he sells his stories and photos through his company called HumInt Media. From there, he made stories for press agencies (Thomson Reuters, AFP and ANP) and several broadcasts, for example VRT (Belgium), ITV News (United Kingdom) and and NTR (The Netherlands).
Also newspapers show his still pictures, these are published in the Dutch papers of Telegraaf, NRC and news sites in other countries. On top of these all, Wichers made some documentaries as well, examples are From Israel with Love, about the relationship between Israel and Palestina, and Guantanamo Bay, about the American detention centre for terrorists.
Bud Wichers records war situations. Photo: private collection
Long list of visited war countries
Wichers’s first touch with war journalism was during the Second Intifadah, which was between September 2000 and begin of 2005. He went to Ramallah, a city at the Palestinian West Bank. “In that time of fights between Israel and Palestina, people asked me how come people were killing each other every day over there”, he explains.
In the years after, the list of visiting countries of the war journalist grew quickly. “I was to Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestina so, Syria. I also reported the Arabian Spring, I visited Egypt and Libya that time,” Wichers sums up. And that’s not even all of his visited countries.
Sharper and more sceptic journalistic work
The freelance journalist has been figuring out social media, like Twitter and Youtube, have their good and their bad sites. He explains: “They are a blessing, because much information is posted on it. On the other hand social media are a curse, for information is not always reliable. Fake news is distributed by parties with their own agenda and profits.”
When he works, the Dutch journalist maintains his standard ‘trust nobody, unless proven otherwise’. And that has a reason. “In a war or armed conflict, every party (citizens, armies and even governments) wants to keep its profits safe.” According to Wichers, this causes that journalists become more sceptic and sharper.
In addition, journalists will be even the first victim in wars. “Everyone think they will be disadvantaged by the truth,” sees Wichers. “They fear journalists explore there is something wrong in these parties. For example: in the Arabic spring, the leaders of the countries didn’t want to know what is really happening.”
Journalist Wichers experienced some riskfull situations. Photo: private collection
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