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BBC producer slain in Somalia felt pressure to go
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-25 09:48 LONDON -- A BBC producer shot and killed in Somalia more than three years ago felt pressured to go to prove her commitment to the public broadcaster, a coroner's inquest heard Monday.
Kate Peyton, 39, was shot by a gunman outside a hotel in Mogadishu in February 2005, two hours after arriving in the capital of the lawless Horn of Africa nation with another BBC journalist. "She had been told there were doubts about her commitment to her job," her sister Rebecca Peyton, 36, told coroner Peter Dean. "She completely felt that she had to go to prove that she was committed," she told the inquest in Ipswich, in the east of England. The sister added: "When it comes to news journalism, you can earn a lot of points by going to dangerous places. It is simply how it functions." Peyton moved to South Africa in 2001 to work on the BBC's world planning desk, and by the time of her death had covered such stories as the AIDS crisis, floods in Mozambique and unrest in Sudan's Darfur region. Freelance reporter Peter Greste told the inquest he was prepared to go to Somalia on his own, before a BBC manager suggested taking a producer, after which he was contacted by Peyton. "She did not express to me... any specific fears that she had that she was unduly concerned about risk," Greste said. But two hours after flying in to Mogadishu, where they were met by a "fixer", a local translator and guide, and eight local security guards, she was shot in the back whilst leaving the hotel with Greste, Suffolk Police detective chief inspector David Skevington told the inquest. A single shot was heard. "Those present instinctively ducked or got down behind the vehicle. Peter Greste ... thought he heard another car in the street driving off at speed, although he saw nothing," Skevington testified. "When he got up, he saw Miss Peyton leaning against the car groaning. He immediately realised that she had been hit and had sustained a wound to the upper left area of her back." She died later that day in a nearby hospital, and her remains sent back to Suffolk, where she grew up, for burial. Peyton's mother Angela Peyton, 68, who had been visiting her daughter before she travelled to Somalia, voiced regret at not dissuading her from going. "She explained to me that she was under pressure," she stated. "She said: 'This will prove to them that I am committed'." "I have regretted ever since not stopping her from going," the mother said. "I felt at the time time that I didn't want to put more pressure on her." The inquest, which is expected to last five days, continues. |
