Latest From the Frontline

Writing on the The BBC Editor’s blog Craig Oliver describes the decision making process behind the broadcast of footage from a street in Jerusalem where a man went amok driving a bulldozer killing and injuring a number of people. After some discussion he decided not to show the moment of death on the Six O’Clock News, but took a different view for the ten o’clock edition,

We don’t want to sanitise the news for what is a mature and thoughtful audience. It’s also important to think about what the audience actually saw - the shot was not close-up, the action was slightly obscured because it was happening behind the bulldozer’s windscreen, the men’s faces were not visible, and no blood was seen. The scene was disturbing, and it was a fine call, but I believe it is important and illuminating very occasionally to see the reality of violence. link

This seems to be an ongoing theme on the BBC Editors blog. A similar discussion to this one was had recently.

This week in Pakistan, the Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman announced the launch of the Journalist Victims’ Fund to help journalists working on the frontline,

“Cameramen and photo journalists on frontline, in particular, those who work in conflict zones have to suffer. Their instruments are insured but their organisations don’t get insurance policy for them,” she lamented. link

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) expressed deep concern about the situation of journalists working in tribal areas following the recent death threats to three journalists,

“We feared that journalists can become the prime target as situation in the coming weeks or months may aggravate and the media groups must adopt safety for their staff and their families before its too late,” PFUJ said in a statement. “We are concern about the life of Zafar Wazir of AVT TV channel and correspondent of Urdu daily Aaj, Anwar Shakir of AFP, and free lance journalist Deen Mohammad.” link

Sir Charles Wheeler, has died at the age of 85. He was the BBC’s longest serving foreign correspondent and reported from Spain, Germany and India after the Second World War. Martin Bell writes about his legacy in The Guardian,

He was no swashbuckler – quite unlike like his heirs and successors who tend to see themselves as the Journalist as Hero and put themselves at the centre of the story. TV news was not then a department of show business. Wheeler was quiet, authoritative and unfailingly courteous. When the US was in turmoil after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, he did the politics and I the riots. He could not have been more welcoming and helpful. link

The BBC have their own obituary to Sir Charles here.

John D. McHugh’s latest film for The Guardian is up. This is his fourth piece and we find John talking to Charlie Company in Afghanistan about what it’s really like to work as an American soldier trying to follow the guidance in the Counterinsurgency Field Manual Click the image above to watch John’s film.

Sean Langan drops by in the comments to say thanks to all those who worried about him during his kidnap ordeal at the hands of the Taliban in the borders area between Pakistan and Afghanistan,

Just wanted to pass on my deep gratitude to all those in the foreign press corp. I lost my phones and haven’t been able to contact all those friends and colleagues I know helped secure my release. A debt never forgotton. And would also like to thank all those in our peculiar little community who were concerned about me…..that sense of not being alone or forgotten was a comfort throughout the ordeal…….So next time I am on expenses, the drinks are on me. I wish you all a safe journey, and while you won’t believe me, trust me: the best thing about being a foreign journalist is coming home to those you love. link

And if this article by Toby Young in the Telegraph is anything to go by, Sean may have the basis of a book bundled up in cloth,

Towards the end of the dinner, I asked Sean if he had been able to keep any sort of journal, imagining that he might have been able to scrawl a few notes on his shirt cuff. He promptly went over to his rucksack and pulled out a little bundle wrapped in cloth. Inside were 17 dog-eared notebooks, all filled with Sean’s spidery handwriting. “My kidnap diary,” he said, fanning the books out across the dinner table. link

For more on Sean’s story, click the photo above to read an interview with him in the “Daily Mail newspaper. The Sunday Times claims Channel 4 paid £150,000 ransom fee for Sean’s release.

Ana Maria Luca, a journalist based in Bucharest working for the Antena 3 TV network, is about to become Beirut correspondent for the channel. She’s just back from her ‘war reporter training’ in Romania,

Seriously speaking, it was a hell of an experience. Doing the physical exercises, and trying to finish the obstacle course, which was not very easy, and then wearing the bullet proof vests and the helmets, which were pretty heavy, although they were not the heaviest they have. The combat equipment is much heavier than the training one. link

The People’s Voice reports that Mohammed Omer, the Gaza-based journalist and winner of a BAFTA award, was allegedly beaten unconscious by Israeli troops on his way back home to Gaza,

My dear friend and brother Mohammed Omer returned to his native Gaza Strip on Thursday… literally unconscious and unable to speak after being beaten and tortured by Israeli troops. He is still unable to speak so I was not able to communicate with him. link

The Associated Press Managing Editors Association have honoured the journalists who covered the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Burma with its deadline reporting award,

“Neither the danger nor the difficulty stopped [Aye Aye Win, the AP’s correspondent in Yangon] or her colleagues from telling the world what happened,” the judges said. “By phone and in person, they turned up dozens of sources who added piece after piece to build the terrible picture, a scene one U.S. meteorologist said was similar in scale to Hurricane Katrina. They even found people brave enough to criticize the government’s failure to warn people about Nargis or to help afterward.” link

The awards will be presented during the APME annual conference between Sept. 8-11 in Las Vegas.

Kevin Cullen, columnist on the Boston Globe, remembers an incident in Montenegro with Dave Lynch, a reporter for USA Today, and how the BBC hoodwinked them out of a seat on the plane to Serbia,

We found ourselves in a seedy bar in Podgorica, the gray capital of Montenegro, asking for a gangster named Momo. We paid Momo 700 deutsche marks for phony visas to get back into Serbia. Momo took our money, but sat in the bar for hours, handing over the visas only after the last plane for Belgrade took off. Personally, I don’t go around telling gangsters how to conduct their business. But Lynch is less retiring and lit into Momo, accusing him of purposely making us miss the plane.

“I am sorry, my friend,” Momo replied genially, putting his hand on Lynch’s shoulder, and in doing so revealed what looked very much like a 9mm Beretta in a shoulder holster. “But a man from the BBC paid me 10,000 deutsche marks to keep you off that plane.” The man from the BBC thought we worked for a rival network. link

It’s desperately ironic that one week Lara Logan bemoans the abysmal state of the US media coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. While, one week later, she finds herself the target of more media coverage than both wars combined. But Why? She didn’t start another war, did she? No, well not really. She is allegedly involved in a love tryst. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the news industry and foreign news coverage in particular is f***ed.