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From
The Media Guardian
http://www.media.guardian.co.uk
How the net will play
a key role in this war
Chris Cramer
March 10, 2003
Saddam Hussein's latest
two television interviews - his only two for many years - have pointed up the
fact that broadcast newsgathering these days is not just for the big players.
On the one hand, we had
Dan Rather, the veteran anchor of CBS News, once again working his contacts and
his past experiences to snag a sit-down interview with Saddam. Definitely a world
scoop but, as it turned out, several weeks after a completely unknown news organisation,
Arab Television, travelled with the former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn to
conduct the first interview Saddam had given to the outside world for 12 years.
Benn was working alongside
Ron McKay from ATV and Roddy Mansfield, one of the founders of an "alternative"
UK newsgathering organisation called Undercurrents which has become known in recent
years for deploying its own camera crews to the scene of global protests like
the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.
I saw much of their camcorder
coverage when, later the same year, I sat on a panel at the Guardian Edinburgh
International Television Festival and the pictures were able to provide a different
perspective from some other news coverage broadcast at the time. And that's the
point about Benn's interview with Saddam. Perspective. It means different things
to different people and the possibility of a US-led war against Iraq is going
to bring new poignancy to the word. The conflict, should it happen, is going to
challenge all serious news organisations to produce, for their audiences or readers,
the most comprehensive coverage their budgets and the safety of their staff will
allow.
Broadcast news on television,
in particular, will be defined by those organisations who manage to have as many
people in the field as possible. With the US and coalition forces. In Baghdad.
In northern Iraq and the Gulf states. In Turkey, Israel, Washington and London.
And we must have the editorial perspective from France and Germany and from key
cities in Asia and Latin America. Otherwise our coverage will be lacking in the
diversity and the texture required.
And, crucially, we need
coverage from those news teams who will operate away from the planned "embedded"
crews - the ones stationed with the US and British forces. The "out of pool" journalists,
or "mavericks" as some would call them, should be able to offer a different perspective
from the war front.
One hard lesson we all
learned during the Gulf war of 1991 was that to avoid myopic reportage, we need
comprehensive eyewitness journalism. It doesn't mean our reports from the "embeds"
will be flawed. If they are subject to "vetting", then CNN and BBC will of course
inform the audience.
But to put the information
jigsaw together we will need to get all the pieces of the puzzle. Otherwise our
audiences will not get the whole picture and the one they require of us. Which
is where the internet and a new form of alternative or "grassroots" journalism
can help. Much of the world is so well wired these days that all news organisations
are bombarded with emails when a story breaks. Frequently, as in the case of the
Columbia shuttle disaster, sophisticated internet users send photographic stills
as well as information to the world's newsrooms. There are even several examples
of shuttle video being offered for transmission by amateur newsgatherers.
During extensive flooding
in Europe last year CNN and the BBC and others received powerful firsthand accounts
by email long before camera crews and correspondents were on the scene. The email
newsgathering was vivid and also included colour stills which were posted into
website galleries hours before newspapers published their accounts.
The US government is
getting in on the act as well. For the first time ever, the US military has engaged
in an "information warfare campaign" aimed at Iraqi email addresses with an onslaught
of spam urging recipients to contact the United Nations if they want to defect.
Saddam has apparently responded by shutting down internet service providers. We've
also seen more and more ISP closures in Iran as well.
But don't think for even
a moment that resourceful users won't figure out some way to get their stories
out. Journalists, academics and citizens have tasted the power of knowledge and
distribution the internet has to offer. I can guarantee we'll see much more of
the grassroots newsgathering should military action come to the Gulf again.
And with that "newsgathering"
will almost certainly come a torrent of rumour and falsehood and spin from some
factions. We should tread very carefully and do well to remember that "truth is
the first casualty of war".
And, more importantly
in these days of email, to remember a lesser-known quotation from Mark Twain:
"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
· Chris Cramer is president
of CNN International Network
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