This morning as I read an op-ed by Bill Keller about the current state of international news, the use of freelance journalists and if we are in a golden age of media, I came across a website called Pay Me Please. This site, set up by freelancer Iona Craig, lets journalists keep track of, and publicly shame, the media organizations that have not paid them for freelance work they have done. It lists the organization name, the journalist’s name, the title of the work, the amount of money owed and the number of days late the organization is in paying. I was appalled by some of the numbers. Bruno Stevens has still not been paid (2,264 days later) by Liberation, a French newspaper, for his photo assignment from the 2006 war in Lebanon. Dazed and Confused Magazine is 4,392 days late in paying Robert Green. Rosana Nieto has been waiting almost a year for the 37,000 euros owed to her by El Adelanto de Salamanca, a Spanish publication. 

I suppose there wasn’t really an organized point to this post, other than trying to spread the word about this website and this unfortunate trend of stiffing freelance journalists, especially as they become the norm in international news gathering. So I’ll end it with this: if you are a publisher, I implore you, PLEASE PAY YOUR FREELANCERS.