War reporting is dead
By Jameela Oberman on April 22, 2008 9:22 am
WAR REPORTING — as we knew it — is dead, shot in the head by ‘embedded journalism’.
That was the focus of a Fleet Street conference organised by the International Communications Forum, which featured media academics and journalists of repute — among them, Phillip Knightley, Martin Bell, Yvonne Ridley, Rafael Marques, and Professor Stuart Allan.
“The real war and the war reported by the media are different,” said Knightley, author of First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Kosovo. “Reporting conflicts in foreign lands become an extension of government justification for the war rather than the public reality of war.”
Knightley, Ridley, Marques and Bell were united in their criticism of the limited representation of conflicts by military-controlled ‘embeds’.
Bell, the BBC foreign correspondent-turned-politician, began the debate, saying war correspondents are stuck in the ‘green zone’, unable to reach the people affected by war. If they are not embedded they run the risk of being shot and killed, often by ‘friendly fire’.
“News is run by the government,” he said, “the news organisations have to be in with the government.”
War reporting — where does a journalist’s duty lie, held at the St Bride’s Church mid-April, focussed on the conflict between the nationalist politics of a journalist and his responsibility towards the people affected by war.
Knightley, who expressed admiration for war correspondent William Howard Russell — Russell brought home the reality of the Crimean War to the British public by way of the Times in the 1850s — said his own reports were criticised because he wrote more like a ‘peace correspondent’, which the establishment found unpalatable.
For his part, BBC World Affairs Editor Jonathan Baker defended the use of ‘green zones’ or ‘roof-top journalism’.
“You can still produce excellent journalism from within green zones,” he said. “The BBC tries to resolve the restrictions in which we are obliged to operate and have to weigh up the expense and risks.”
Press TV presenter Ridley, famously kidnapped by the Taliban when reporting for the Daily Express, said the media is used by the government to endorse conflicts. Un-embedded journalists risk being shot dead by the US military, as has happened in Iraq.
Times columnist Magnus Linklater said it is harder today to maintain high standards than before, because the war situation is more complex than it has been.
Freelance editorial consultant Martin Huckerby, who works for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, said it was the journalists’ responsibility to be aware of prejudices they may have when reporting foreign affairs.
Bell said independent journalism was virtually impossible in today’s professional media organisations. He expressed concern over how government spin doctors manipulate the media.
But if the conventional media do not tell people what they want to know, they now have the option of turning to citizen journalists. Marques, known for his investigative reports into the diamond industry and government corruption in Angola, said of this struggle over information:
“There are two conflicting wars — the military war and the public opinion war. The public can take more control over the news than the journalists. Citizen Journalism is a real challenge to the authority of professional journalists.”
Bournemouth University Professor Stuart Allan said unapologetic subjectivity in reporting connects with people. User-generated content appeals to readers because it offers them a diversity of perspectives from around the world.
Marques said western news is mostly dictated by the politics of UK and USA and this has to change. International reporting should focus more on the ordinary people affected by war, he said.
Jameela Oberman is a writer at Interjunction. Mail her at jameela.interjunction@gmail.com
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