Peyton: contract pressure too great
JOURNALIST Kate Peyton was driven to her death by a need to prove herself to the BBC and get her fixed-term contract renewed, a coroner agreed in November.
She was shot dead outside a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia — one of the most dangerous places in the world — in 2005.
The inquest, held in her family’s home town of Ipswich, returned a verdict of unlawful killing after coroner Peter Dean said she had undertaken the assignment reluctantly, worried that her three-year contract might not be extended after criticism of her work.
The coroner said: “It is clear on the evidence we have heard that Kate didn’t want to go to Mogadishu. What is also abundantly clear is that she only took the assignment because she felt if she didn’t, the chances of getting that contract renewed would be damaged.
“She felt that she could not turn this job down. If that was not the case, she would not have been in this situation and she would not have died.”
It was a wounding verdict for the BBC, which is among the better employers in applying strict safety measures on hazardous assignments. But it was the corporation’s employment practices, not its safety policies, that were at issue.
NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “The verdict highlights the unacceptable pressures placed on Kate Peyton — but it is symptomatic of the kind of pressures many freelances, casuals and those who lack proper job security face.”