"The crash site was a two-hour drive from where I live, and it was raining. I jumped into a taxi and arrived 25 minutes earlier than any other international media."

Xinhua was the first news organization to break the news of the accident, he says, in which a Boeing 727 cargo plane had crashed into the van near Accra airport, killing 10 people.

As a local reporter who grew up in Ghana, Adoboe has good contacts. A few months after he joined Xinhua, a mine collapsed in another town. He was tied up with other things and could not get there, he says, but because he knew the local police commander, he managed to get constant updates on the accident and again beat other international media.

He says he also has to ensure his reports have no bias. Last year, for example, the Ghanaian government announced that some Chinese gold miners in the country were illegal immigrants and more than 100 Chinese workers were arrested. Some media in China treated the arrests as being "anti-Chinese" and wrote harshly critical articles, while Western media comment was largely critical of the Chinese.

"I followed the immigration officials closely to see how they dealt with the case, and I tried my best to show the real picture to readers. While it is true that some Chinese workers were illegal immigrants, I also learned that some were secretly brought in by Ghanaians."

After more than four years of working for Xinhua, Adoboe has established himself as a senior correspondent in the Accra bureau.

"It gives me a great sense of achievement," he says.

wangchao@chinadaily.com.cn