Lin Taylor

Photo Courtesy Of Lin Taylor

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP AND WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT YOUR HOMETOWN?
I grew up in Sydney, Australia. I now live in London. Sydney is the best city on the planet, in my opinion. It's got the city buzz, beautiful beaches, great work/life balance, friendly laidback vibes, and best of all, the food is amazing because we have people from all over the world living there.

WHAT WERE YOUR ASPIRATIONS AS A CHILD? 
didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I wanted to get paid to travel the world (which is probably what most kids dream about, right?).

YOU WERE BORN TO REFUGEE PARENTS, WHAT IS THEIR EXPERIENCE AND HOW HAS THEIR STORY AFFECTED YOURS?
I'm ethnically Chinese. Most of family lived and were born in Vietnam. When the Vietnam War kicked off, they moved from Hanoi in the north to Saigon in the south. Then after the war, they fled the country on fishing boats - you've probably seen photos of Vietnamese boatpeople. Eventually, my family was granted refugee status and resettled in Australia. Together with many other Southeast Asians including Cambodians fleeing genocide, we effectively ended the White Australia Policy. If you ever meet a Southeast Asian Australian who is between 20 - 40 years old, chances are they have a similar story to mine.

It was only in the last five years that I realised how incredible my family are and started feeling proud of my refugee background. I'm sure most second generation refugee children growing up in a Western country would feel the same way. I wasn't interested in the Vietnam War or visiting Vietnam until I was in my late 20s. Growing up, I didn't think that our story or experience was that special, mainly because I was embarrassed. There was a stigma about growing up in Cabramatta as a refugee because that suburb was the heroin capital of Australia during the 90s. I never told anyone I lived there until recently - some of my friends from high school didn't even know that until now. (If you're interested, I wrote about my family's story, here.) Now that I'm a journalist covering the migrant crisis in Europe who has been to refugee camps in Jordan, Calais and Serbia, I feel like I know what they're going through and how to report these issues sensitively because my family went through the exact experience. It's interesting how life works.

WHY JOURNALISM AND HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
I never dreamt of being a journalist. I studied psychology and wanted to become a neuropsychologist (what a nerd!). I found that I enjoyed writing uni assignments and always got great marks for the "written communication" component. I was curious about the world, so I decided to study journalism as a postgrad degree. I did lots of internships and started freelancing as a writer. Eventually I began working as a journo at my dream broadcaster SBS Television, which is a small but innovative Aussie radio/TV/online media outlet that covers international news, diversity and multicultural issues with integrity and intelligence.

WHAT IS YOUR EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND?
In Australia, higher education is basically free - you owe the government a student loan which you pay back through taxes when you get a fulltime job, which means going to university is very accessible. After I did my undergrad in psychology, I enrolled in a Master's in journalism degree just to see if I liked it. I ended up loving it, so here we are.

WHAT BEATS DO YOU COVER?
I now work at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Reuters news agency. So our beats are very specific - humanitarian issues, conflicts, global health, human trafficking and slavery, women's rights, LGBT issues, climate change, resilience, land rights, and anything else that is under-reported. Our whole mandate is to cover under-reported issues. This is the kind of journalism that I love.

WHAT BEATS DO YOU FEEL ARE UNDER-REPRESENTED?
Basically, the same ones I mentioned earlier! i.e. humanitarian issues, conflicts, global health, human trafficking and slavery, women's rights (FGM, child marriage), LGBTI issues, climate change affecting developing nations, land rights affecting rural communities etc. I also think stories of Indigenous people around the world are very much under-reported.

HOW DO YOU FILTER THROUGH INFORMATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE?
I read widely and I make sure I'm not in a bubble or echo chamber when it comes to the sort of information I digest. Obviously, going to university helps with critical thinking and being a journalist means that I'm a hardened skeptic. I think being open-minded, not too serious or snobby about anything really helps, too.

 WHAT RESPONSIBILITY DOES THE MEDIA HAVE IN THE CURRENT CLIMATE?
I think newsrooms need to hire more people who are different - ethnically diverse, LGBT reporters, people with disabilities etc. Most journos in the mainstream media are straight, white and university-educated men, which isn't representative of the world we live in. If we want the public to trust journalists, newsrooms can't comprise solely of a group of people who come from a highly privileged background and are slightly out of touch with what's happening on the ground. We need more journos who come from diverse backgrounds - that would add more richness to the news stories that are produced.

WHAT DO YOU GET UP TO OUTSIDE OF WORK?
In Sydney, it was easy to do things outside of work because of its amazing weather and beaches. But here in London, it's basically work, Tube, dinner, sleep. Repeat! To be fair, I'm still settling into the city so we're slowly making new friends and getting into a routine. I have squeezed in lots of weekends away with my husband - I love travelling and exploring. Being in Europe has been awesome for that.

HOW DO YOU UNWIND?
I spend most of my time looking at memes and watching stupid viral videos. I'm not kidding. I'm honestly not that interesting - I think because my work can be quite emotionally draining, I really enjoy the simple things in life. I read, go to the gym, listen to music, watch Netflix, listen to podcasts. I'm a foodie so I also love cooking and going out for dinner. I used to draw and sketch for hours to unwind when I was a student, so I'm actually thinking of doing that again.