T
he Iraq war and its aftermath, the
challenges of expanded global
and regional television in the
Middle East, and how best to
serve an exploding population of
listeners, viewers and website surfers.These
topics dominated the second annual global
media business conference of theAssociation
for International Broadcasting in London.
More than 150 public and commercial
broadcasters from six continents attended
the gathering, held 29-30 April at the Royal
College of Surgeons in central London. BBC
World and BBC World Service were the
Conference Partners, while AIB member
GlobeCast provided the worldwide satellite
links. Other sponsors included SES-Astra,
EuropeStar, InterMedia Survey Institute and
World Radio Network.
The conference was
chaired for the
second year running
by
renowned
journalist and BBC
World presenter,Nik
Gowing. He said that
the expansion of the
event to two days was
in response to the previous year’s successful
but“intense” one-day conference – to givemore
space to explore the multiplicity of issues facing
international broadcasters and their suppliers.
Gowing explained that the key issues under
the microscope would be audiences,
technology,rights and regulation,content,and -
for the first time at any conference since the
end of the Iraq war - in-depth consideration of
how broadcasters had risen to the challenges
the conflict had presented.
The director of BBCWorld Service and Global
News, Mark Byford, opened the 22-nation
gathering by observing that it was being held
“at a momentous time for all of us in
international broadcasting.” He spoke of a
paradox in today’s world media environment.
“It is,” Byford said, “a world awash with
information, yet ignorance and propaganda are
rife. It is a world in which issues are more
complex, but news coverage is often more
simplistic.You could call it a disconnected world
in a world of globalisation.”
Byford added that against a background of 14
deaths of journalists and many more
threatened or beaten up, the corporation had
resolved to be robust in the defence of
editorial freedom. He claimed that BBC
reporting of the war was successful because
the Corporation was not an arm of the state.
Focusing on the war itself, Byford said that,
with events seen through several different
“keyholes” (such as the embedded journalists)
the task was to make reporting as complete
as possible. He added that it was too early to
reach full conclusions about the coverage, but
said it was clear that it was vital to continue
asking tough questions of those in power. He
also revealed that demand for BBC internet
services had “broken all records” during the
war, with 100m extra page impressions. At
the same time, the internet had opened an
important forum for interactive debate about
coverage and events.There had also been a big
boost to use of BBC services round the world,
including those in the US and India.
Participants in the two-day forum described a
number of strategies for confronting the
challenges to international broadcasting after
September 11,2001.They examined what went
right and what fell short in coverage of the
Iraq war.They addressed the need to remain
service-oriented and competitive as delivery
systems expand and media revenues, public
and private, decline.They learned more about
the current unprecedented explosion of
television to and within the Arab world, and
the challenges and opportunities that poses.
The Iraq war. Several speakers paid tribute to
the courage and sacrifices of front line
reporters, producers and photographers. The
Channel published an edition to coincide with
the conference, and it listed the journalists
killed or missing — 17 men and women as of
May 1. “At a conference such as this,” Byford
said,“we remember those colleagues who were
killed or injured in
the war, and we
think especially of
their families.” Yosri
Fouda,
Chief
I n v e s t i g a t i v e
Reporter of al-
Jazeera agreed,
saying that the cost
of the war coverage had been immense in that
a member of al-Jazeera staff had been lost and
the Baghdad bureau destroyed. He added that
deployment of al-Jazeera staff had been six in
Baghdad, two in the north of Iraq, two in Mosul
and two in Basra.
Fouda said that although his network had been
demonised by the US, it had “gained the
respect” of the man in the street. Liliane
Landor, editor of news and current affairs for
BBCWorld Service said that the aim of its war
coverage was to
make it resonate
with
different
audiences, “the US
marine as much as
the Iraqi guy with no
other information
than the BBC”. A
guiding principle had
been to make sure coverage humanised the
war and did not lose sight of that there would
be many casualties. She said that for monitoring
purposes, editors had been appointed to
ensure that coverage remained properly
focused and balanced. She added that the
coverage had led to increased audiences.
The former managing director of EuroNews,
David Lowen, spoke of another kind of courage
- making tough calls in the cut and thrust of daily
editorial decisions. He said EuroNews editors
were rigorous during the Iraqwar in questioning
the accuracy and depth of stories and footage
aired.“Itwas not editing by committee,” he added,
“but editing by the committed.”
In reviewing coverage of the conflict, AIB
conference participants cited these challenges:
—-Dealing in split seconds with a rich harvest
of “real time” video and audio sources, many
more of these inundating
newsrooms with much greater
immediacy than in previous wars.
Embedded reporters, an
indispensable part of the 2003 mix,
were of necessity relaying what
Adrian van Klaveren, head of
newsgathering of BBC News,
termed “only part of the jigsaw
puzzle.” He cited the ultimate test
to editors and anchors, that of offering
viewers “total context…working out the
“Global news services have never been
more prominent or important.
However, the war in Iraq has
demonstrated that while the world may
be connected technologically, it is far
from connected in terms of mutual
understanding.”
Mark Byford, director of BBCWorld Service and
Global News
