My dollar lies over the ocean...

Even after a working lifetime in journalism, I am still naïve enough to be shocked when a highly regarded quality publication stiffs me. Mercifully, such occasions are rare - although I have been obliged once or twice to stage a sit-in at the office of the offending rag until the cheque was handed over.

This tactic is clearly impractical when the deadbeat's HQ is in Hong Kong. So vulnerable freelances might be well advised to draw the obvious conclusion from my small problem with the venerable South China Morning Post: news story commissioned (on their initiative) and used last February, numerous dunning e-mails eliciting the odd placatory reply, cash in hand at the time of writing zilch.

Tony Samstag
Drobak, Norway

Ed: We've asked whether the Hong Kong Journalists Association can help informally.