Click here to look at Alexa's full freelance profile on Journalism.co.uk.Why did you choose to become a freelancer?
I chose to become a freelancer to be able to choose where I live and be able to write about more diverse subjects. For example, I am currently doing travel pieces from Hong Kong.
How did you become a freelancer?
After a Master's degree in International and European politics, I trained at NoSweat Journalism Training in Clerkenwell, London, where I did the NCTJ preliminary certificates and started working at a newspaper concurrently with the course.
What areas do you write about?
At the moment I specialise in travel and politics; I was the travel editor for a short while at the South Africa Times, but my real specialisation is international relations.
For the South Africa Times I wrote about South Africa's activities on the UN Security Council and covered political events at the London School of Economics and the South African High Commission.
Which publications have you been published in?
I have had an affiliation with the South Africa Times since September 2006 and currently contribute my travel pieces to this publication, but I have also been published in The Week, and ThreeWeeks Festival Newspaper in Edinburgh.
What are the best and worst aspects of freelancing?
The best aspect is the control you have over your work. The worst is the uncertainty and the amount of articles you write on spec. It is still a full-time job!
Tell us a story...
For the South Africa Times I covered Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's foreign minister, giving a talk on the future of the UN. Her talk was mobbed by protesters, including one of the journalists I was sitting with in the press box.
That journalist was Peter Tatchell - the human rights activist who tried to perform a citizen's arrest on Robert Mugabe in Paris - I was there to see firsthand when he rushed the stage and was then forcibly removed.
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