Getting in to the war zone
Having made the decision to try to cover the story, the next problem to be solved is how to get into the conflict zone. Normally, as soon as a country is approaching a war footing, scheduled airline flights are cancelled and civilian airports are closed. It may still be possible to get in by chartered aircraft, although chartering fees are likely to be increased due to the high risks of aircraft either being attacked or being impounded on landing. It is also possible that the situation is so volatile that although there seemed no obstacle on landing, and having dropped off the newsgathering team, by the time the aircraft is ready to take-off, it is not possible.
In recent conflicts, newsgatherers have on occasion been able to ‘hitch a ride’ with aircraft involved in UN peacekeeping activities in the conflict. This can be difficult, as it may be a matter of waiting until an aircraft is available with enough payload to carry all the equipment.
Since the Gulf conflict in 1990, it has become generally accepted that the electronic media serve a role in publicizing the events in a conflict, and contribute to the overall political process of informing the public. All conflicts have some degree of news reporting from inside the conflict zone, and some media will always find a way in. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that any newsgathering organization will wish to send in a full-size SNG flyaway into a conflict zone where the team has to be able to move quickly and at short notice. Dragging over a tonne of equipment around flies in the face of this, but as we saw earlier when looking at Inmarsat, there are other options to enable newsgatherers deliver breaking news reports.
An interesting facet of the coverage of the conflict in Kosovo is that the deployment of SNG trucks into an area of major international conflict was seen for the first time (in addition to the use of flyaways). Due to the fact that the Balkans are part of Europe, with countries with developed infrastructures on all sides, a significant number of newsgatherers and independent operators were able to get trucks in either overland via Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, or by ferry across the Adriatic from Italy. Many of the trucks waited in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro until the NATO forces were ready to move in, providing coverage of the story, and some were at the vanguard of the push into Kosovo with NATO forces as the Serbian army and militia left. A few trucks were damaged, either by Kosovan Serbs (for revenge), by Serbia on the grounds of no permission to operate having been given (mostly NATO nationality operators), or as the story died down and crews were on the way out, impounded by Macedonia on the grounds of Customs violations. (Several newsgatherers also had flyaway systems damaged or lost in Serbia – either damaged inadvertently in the NATO attacks or again impounded by the authorities.)
Locating the uplink
Having taken an SNG uplink in to a war zone, it needs to be in as safe a position as possible which allows relative ease of access to the news interest.
It may be in a hotel, at a government facility, or can even be in a private house rented for the operation. In some situations, all the newsgathering operations are gathered together in one place, in others they are scattered around. From the newsgatherers’ point of view, the advantage of the media being together is that they are able to help each other out (as long as it does not interfere with editorial competitiveness), and it also facilitates the sharing of material where such arrangements exist. What determines where the media gather can vary from government ‘diktat’ to wherever happens to be a natural congregating point.
For instance, during the recent Iraq crises from 1997 to 2003, the media in Iraq were required by the government to be grouped together at the Ministry of Information in Baghdad, and required to stay at a nearby hotel. During the conflict in Bosnia, most of the media in Sarajevo were grouped at the local TV station, not because of any diktat, but because that was a natural congregation point. In the Iraq crisis of 2003, the main centre of media activity was in Doha in Qatar as that was where the US Central Command had facilitated the media to establish their satellite communications.
The uplink is often located on a rooftop or balcony of a building, and it is usually rigged so that in case of attack it can be remotely controlled from inside the building, enabling live transmissions to continue. Inmarsat satphones are also similarly rigged so that communications can be maintained at all times. The advantage of this arrangement has been seen in the Iraqi crises in particular, where live reports from Baghdad have been sustained during air attacks from Coalition aircraft. Of course, the fact that media are gathered in particular locations means that these locations are (hopefully) not targeted.
Plans on how to move the SNG uplink around have to be in hand. During the course of a conflict, it is sometimes necessary to be able to move the SNG uplink to other locations within the zone. This will inevitably be by road, and typically need at least two sturdy four-wheel drive vehicles. The use of the word ‘road’ here is meant in its loosest sense, and therefore four-wheel drive vehicles are an absolute necessity. However, there may be situations that require greater ingenuity. When the BBC took an SNG flyaway uplink into Afghanistan after the September 11 (2001) attack on the United States, they used pack mules to transport the uplink equipment over the border.
It is almost essential that armour-plated vehicles are used if there is a serious risk of the team coming under fire. This will obviously give a greater degree of protection to the reporter and camera crew as they move around, as well as offering a way of moving the SNG uplink around if required.
It is worth mentioning that the mere possession of armoured vehicles can also make the newsgathering team subject to attack. This is either because they can be mistaken for legitimate targets, or because particularly in a civil war, one or both sides is likely to be short of arms and military equipment, and tempted by such attractive transport available for the taking. The fact that the vehicle is being operated by a news organization is of no consequence.
It would be irresponsible for any news organization not to have carefully laid plans for evacuation of their team in a hostile environment for when the situation deteriorates to absolute danger – this would be part of the risk assessment. Judging the moment when the time is right to pull out is difficult to determine remotely, and detailed discussions with the team usually occur before the decision is taken. Because of the financial (and strategic) value of the SNG uplink, the means of escape usually includes measures to get the uplink out as well.
As with getting the team in, the quickest way of getting people out is generally primarily by air, or as a second choice by road. There will not be any scheduled airline traffic from a war zone, so if it is appropriate to use aircraft as a means of escape, the two usual methods are either by military (often UN) air transport, or by having a chartered aircraft available near at hand. Even if such an arrangement is in place, it is common to have a ‘Plan B’ for getting personnel and equipment out by road.
Pool arrangements
In some situations, the forming of a media pool either is by mutual consent of the newsgathering organizations, or it is a condition imposed on the media by an external authority. Many of the large news networks have been forced to pool their resources, as the problems of access, transportation, cost and local politics may conspire against them each having their own facilities on the ground. Often these pools are organized on a national or regional basis – for instance, the US networks may form a pool serving US interests, the Japanese networks for their interests, and the EBU may provide facilities for its members. At other times, where strategic alliances exist between certain newsgatherers, joint operations may be established.
A pool formed voluntarily is usually because of overwhelming safety considerations and has occurred particularly once a situation has significantly worsened either because of military action or because of a direct threat of military action against the media. The pool arrangement is likely to involve minimizing the number of personnel on the ground while still providing enough material for the differing news interests. It can also be formed and dissolved in different phases of the conflict, and constantly reviewed. The personnel most exposed are likely to be reporters and camera crews, and the focus will be on providing enough reporting crews to cover the different facets of the conflict. Nevertheless, the number of active SNG uplinks will be kept down to minimize the numbers of personnel in the area. This may involve either withdrawing or mothballing (storing) uplinks for a period until the situation improves.
Where a pool is demanded by an external authority – for instance, by a national government on the grounds of security – the newsgathering organizations will be forced to comply or risk having all their press access withdrawn. Newsgatherers generally comply with these demands, though it has been known for individual ‘maverick’ operations to be undertaken to try to bypass such restrictions.
Operating SNG uplinks has a number of factors to be considered that go beyond the merely technical, and have a direct impact on the safety of people – both the operators and the public – in a number of different dimensions. The influence on time pressure on covering news events can push the significance of some of these factors into the background unless there is a commitment not to ignore them. International travel with the typical volume of SNG flyaway equipment escalates the stakes, and deploying to a hostile environment pushes the decision-making processes to a very high level of pressure, both in terms of safety and costs.
In the fiercely competitive news everyone in the field wants to be first and ‘live’ – but above all, they need to be alive.