Operating in hostile environments

A hostile environment in terms of newsgathering can range from a civil riot to an international war. Operating SNG uplinks in these environments brings a new set of problems in safety and logistics. Obviously, the greatest challenge is in operating in war zones – be it a civil war, such as in Bosnia, or an international conflict as in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The greatest problems in deploying SNG systems into these situations are in both safety and logistics. But it is in these types of story that satellite transmissions from the field have had the greatest impact in shaping news bulletins, and consequently our view of significant world events.

SNG systems are typically deployed into these areas with the consideration of a large set of factors. There are the logistical elements, e.g. personnel and equipment (and money) available, and technical elements, e.g. availability of space segment to be met, and in addition all the considerations of the dangers and protective measures to be taken. These include:

The immediate response

For newsgathering in hazardous or difficult and remote locations, the first major problem faced is getting into the area with a means of reporting ‘live’ as quickly as possible. The first 24 hours for any newsgatherer in this situation can be the most difficult, while they attempt to ‘ramp up’ their own resources or hire-in resources form the nearest available supplier in the region. The demand for coverage from even the most difficult and remote location is intense, particularly as there will be fierce competition from the other major newsgatherers to secure facilities for coverage.

For everyone it is very often a race as to who gets to book the nearest SNG uplink facilities, and this can be intense. In the pressure of the breaking of the story, no one can afford to spend too much time haggling over prices, as speed of reaction is just as important to the independent operator as to the client newsgatherer. Standard rate cards tend to go out of the window in these circumstances, and it becomes a matter of the highest bidder who is the fastest to the phone or fax machine.

We then enter the next stage, where having somehow responded to provide coverage in the first 24 hours, the story develops and grows larger and more resources need to be organized and brought to the location. In the succeeding days, more and more in the way of resources tends to be poured into the story, and it can become a logistical and financial nightmare to track what equipment has been sent where, and then to identify and control costs. Covering events on major scale is very expensive, and can run into tens of thousands of dollars a day!

Risk to personnel

As we said earlier, ‘no story is worth a life’, and that has to be the overriding consideration when sending any newsgathering team to cover a story in a hostile environment. If we take that saying to its extreme, the story may not be covered, so it is a matter of the inherent risks being minimized as much as possible. There are some situations where unfortunately the risks are too high, as it has been obvious that in the last decade the media themselves became targets in some conflicts – for example, Chechnya, Kosovo, East Timor and Iraq. In conflicts in previous decades, the presence of the media was generally tolerated – but that cannot any longer be assumed, and is an added factor when trying to assess the risks.

The team

The typical newsgathering team – usually a minimum of reporter, producer, cameraman, video editor, sound technician as well as the uplink operators – all should ideally be equipped to deal with such situations, and strategies worked out to deal with the various possible scenarios.

This might imply that the planning involved in covering a war or civil disturbance is formulaic, but that is unfortunately not so. Nor is there necessarily much time to debate and prepare as much as would be ideal. It is a matter of ensuring that certain steps are taken to ensure, as much as possible, the safety of the team. Circumstances permitting this may include picking team members who have had previous experience of working in war zones, and ideally who have had relevant survival training. At the very least, the planning will include engaging a local fixer – a local civilian contact who can keep abreast of the situation, possibly cultivating military, police and other contacts, and act as translator to the newsgathering team in the field. Any source that can be used to develop an informed knowledge of the situation, including reports from other journalists, all adds to the quality of the planning process, which may also involve discussion with other ‘friendly’ newsgatherers involved in covering the same story to share hazard assessments.

Train for survival

The hazards faced by the team obviously vary from situation to situation. The reporter, producer, cameraman and sound technician will be working a lot of the time at the ‘front line’, while the video editor and uplink operators will probably be in a position further away at the ‘base’ position. Alternatively, the base position may also be liable to attack, and the whole team is equally vulnerable.

Many newsgathering teams have been trained to be able to defend themselves for NBC attacks (nuclear, biological and chemical) in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan conflicts, and travelled to such areas with appropriate personal protection equipment. Other training that many in the media have undertaken includes battlefield first aid and survival training. The use of flak jackets and helmets, as well as other personal protective equipment, are basic tools nowadays for the well-travelled and well-prepared newsgathering team, and they have usually had some paramilitary training in personal protection. There are a number of specialist companies that sprang up in the 1990s, often run by ex-military special forces personnel, who run short intensive training programmes for media personnel who are going into war zones or other types of hostile environment.

Other equipment that is commonly used are hand-held GPS navigation aids and typically the compact Inmarsat Mini-M satphones. It should be noted that GPS units are position-reporting equipment, and in some conflicts a hostile military force may consider this as espionage equipment if a newsgathering team are caught in possession.

Accepting the risk

Each member of the team should accept the assignment knowing the risks, and ideally a full risk assessment will have been completed to protect personnel. As the overall objective is journalistic, the producer or the reporter will obviously lead the team, but every member of the team has their part to play, and they will be working together in an intense and frightening environment for days or weeks. The whole team is also under considerable pressure to ‘make it’ on time in terms of transmissions. Reports are often only prepared shortly before the transmission time, as there is always a feeling of having to work ‘up to the wire’ for the report to contain the very latest information and situation report.