They are men in the shadows. They can be both the interpreter, the guide, the driver, the nanny of the great reporters who discover a country at war - and are sometimes themselves journalists. They are the fixers. Recently, several leading French reporters, all of whom have covered the fall of Saddam Hussein, launched a kitty to help Mohammed, who had been their fixer in Iraq in 2003 and 2003. Today, 54 years, Mohammed is now refugees in the United States, after seeing his asylum application rejected in France. This Iraqi launches an SOS: he needs a little cash to buy his first stock of goods and start his small shop.
Saeed, Franco-Iranian, was a fixer for French and American journalists in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Benjamin Vincent, former reporter for Europe 1 and C in the air , is today a journalist at Ouatch TV, the TV of innovation. Both describe the profession of fixer, unknown to the general public, at the microphone of Philippe Vandel in Culture Media.
" We live 7 days a week, 24 hours a day together ""The role of a fixer is essential when you arrive in a country and in this context [of war], says Benjamin Vincent.It is a little our handyman and it is not pejorative. is almost anecdotal. " The reporter recounts his working relationship with his former fixer Mohammed: "We live 7 days a week, 24 hours a day together, we live more together than with our wife!" And Saeed added: "I even hosted them at home in Tehran!"
Both stress the importance of teamwork. "We had crazy days," remembers Benjamin Vincent "We're so tired of what we saw that it's good to have someone to listen to a sound.
"The danger is invisible and permanent"
By his knowledge of the field, the fixer also allows the foreign journalist to avoid situations of insecurity. "The danger is both invisible and permanent, we are always on the alert," says Benjamin Vincent. He remembers the broken roads and the risk of stray bullets when he arrived in Iraq in 2003. "There were no more police, no more rulers, no more hospitals." Everybody wandered with a weapon on the street. looted buildings and everyone did what he wanted. "
In his conditions, his cooperation with Mohammed was precious. "We were subjected to the curfew of the Americans," recalls Benjamin Vincent, "he had a good grasp of distance and said, 'Now you have to go'."
A pot to help Mohammed start a new life
Saeed says he has been scared for his life several times. Like this episode with photographer Jacques Langevin, with Afghan mujahideen who "sprinkled gusts" then this taxi ride where "there was more floor". The French-Iranian journalist also knew the Iranian jail for 19 days, in 2009, after the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
For Mohammed, now, time is running out. To obtain a visa in the United States, he needs income. "He needs 15,000 euros to start a new life," explains Benjamin Vincent, "The goal, in the end, is dramatic, is to avoid expulsion." With this prize pool (available on this link), Benjamin Vincent and other confreres hope to allow their former fixer to start a commercial activity and bring his family, who lives in Jordan. hopes to start a commercial activity and avoid being sent back to Iraq, then bring his wife and two sons, who live in Jordan.