the
channel
|
19
ar:
hould journalists be?
organisation, has also been making specific
proposals concerning the safety of freelance
reporters, who are too often vulnerable in
regions of conflict or unrest because they lack
the means to take out adequate insurance
policies. After meeting with the FreeLens and
ANJRPC associations on the issue of
freelance journalist safety, ReportersWithout
Borders asked the Audiens Insurance Group
to extend its group coverage to include
freelance reporters who are members of
Reporters Without Borders. Freelancers who
wish to sign up for this insurance policy are
invited to join the press freedom organisation
by paying an annual membership fee of
€
10
in France, or
€
15 in other countries.
Call to action
Reporters Without Borders is launching an
appeal to editorial offices, press clubs,
syndicates, journalism associations and
schools, specialised Internet sites, news sites,
etc., to help spread information about the
insurance to freelance journalists by passing
on the promotional campaign materials to
their freelance contacts and members.
Reporters Without Borders is asking each of
these groups to designate an internal “safety
delegate” to take charge of raising awareness
about freelance journalists’ safety-related
problems by adapting the message to their
own respective media.
There was no doubt that the army of journalists
achieved a tour de force in the quantity and
quality of broadcast coverage from the war
zone. Chris Cramer,
president of CNN
I n t e r n a t i on a l
N e t w o r k s ,
looked at the
h u g e
technological
advances, but
also commented
on the human
cost of achieving
such results.
Technology has
changed
so
much
that
broadcast news
coverage of the
conflict in Iraq
on television will quite simply be defined by
those organisations that manage to have as
many people in the field as possible, armed
with the right kit. This time around we have
the tools at our disposal to ensure we tell the
full story, not just a part of it.
Real-time, live images from just about
anywhere have become our single greatest
weapon in the news wars. Broadcasters who
routinely deploy four or five staff to do a
simple TV interview are not going to survive
the broadcast revolution. And they don’t
deserve to. There is nothing magical about
this industry. No black magic. No alchemy.
And there are plenty of competitors happy to
take over if we haven’t got the good sense to
change the ways we do things. Not once but
all the time. I believe that the experiences and
skills of the new generation of broadcaster
now enable news managers to make quite
different judgments about how we handle
news coverage for a network or a continuous
news channel.
As images are transmitted faster, the pressure
of 24/7 news can give us less time to make a
judgment about what goes on air and what
stays off. There is no denying the burden real-
time news, on top of the pressures to be first,
has put on our staff, who frequently operate
under the most appalling of circumstances
and in conditions of real danger.
Used intelligently, technology can support
and improve our journalists and our
journalism. That does not mean we must
become a slave to these new tools. And we
must not become so obsessed with the gizmos
at our disposal that we forget some of the
basic principles of journalism. Technology is
a tool to improve understanding of what
happens in the world. It’s for us to use wisely.
CNN’s Chris Cramer
