Exiled journalist? Branch mentors can help you

AN INCREASING number of those applying to join NUJ's London Freelance Branch are journalists recently arrived from other countries. This often means coming from a different media culture, in terms both of how journalism itself is done and of the business side of freelancing.

To assist international journalists who might be struggling to reboot their careers here, LFB has a mentoring scheme targeted towards new Branch members who may not speak English as a first language.

Many members from other countries have told us they have struggled to get commissions from editors, not being familiar with the basics of working as a freelance in the UK. How do freelances pitch for work? Who should they pitch to? How should they negotiate for better pay? Not least, learning how to do business in London is even harder when you are also facing a language barrier.

Launched towards the end of last year, the Branch mentoring service is aimed at members whose written and spoken English ranges from very limited to a level which may be conversationally good but has not yet reached the standard expected of professional journalists.

Branch mentors are not English teachers, mind: they offer guidance to new arrivals getting to grips with the way the media works here, which may be dramatically different from how media industries operated in their counties of origin. Mentors try to help members past this block and identify media markets for their work. The skills and experience of these journalists may be exactly the type that editors are looking for.

For more information, or if you think a mentor could help you, email mentoring@londonfreelance.org. The scheme is being administered by the Branch's new membership secretaries Nick Renaud-Komiya and Mariam Elsayeh Ibrahim, who will try to match members with the right mentors. Feel free to get in touch if you wish to volunteer as a mentor too, of course.

LFB also supports the ongoing initiative All the Voices of the NUJ which puts newly arrived journalists in touch with colleagues who speak their own language. For more details, contact our membership secretaries.