Missionary news service pays tribute to Dith Pran

The Missionary News Service has paid tribute to Cambodian journalist Dith Pran, who died, aged 65, on Sunday. "To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in frightening places, Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism-the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do" MISNA quotes Bill Keller, executive director of the New York Times. Pran's harrowing story became known worldwide in the award-winning movie The Killing Fields. Pran worked with correspondent Sidney Schanberg when the Vietnam war spilled over into Cambodia. When Phnom Penh fell, Schanberg was evacuated, and rescued Pran's family, but Pran was left behind to survive the regime of the Khmer Rouge, under which up to two million Cambodians were killed. After experiencing slave labour and starvation, he eventually escaped and went on to work for the New York Times, devoting his life to campaigning for the people of Cambodia. Pran was also remembered on Monday night in Florence in a debate organised by the 'Input' cultural association on the book 'Reporting from no man's lands ("Cronache dale terre di nessuno") by the journalist and essayist Giovanni Porzio. MISNA took part in the gathering, which was dedicated "To those who every day bring a voice from no mans lands" Pran will be cremated in a Buddhist ceremony in New Kersey later this week.