EXPERIENCES FROM THE FIELD: THE SAFETY OF JOURNALISTS Mike McRoberts, Anchor, TV3 (New Zealand)

Reporting on Violence and Emergencies: Regional Media Conference for East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Panel 3: Safety of journalists reporting in conflicts and emergencies 14 October 2011

Last week I published my book which tells the stories behind the stories of the past decade and includes my reporting from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza and closer to home conflicts in East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. The book also covers a number of the worlds biggest natural disasters including the earthquakes in Pakistan, China and Haiti and of course earlier this year in my hometown of Christchurch, and then the Tsunami in Japan. Ive been incredibly lucky over the years that my employer has kept sending me to these major news events, while our competition has maintained a policy of sharing round its correspondent duties. Its given me the opportunity to accumulate a degree of expertise and knowledge and if I could me so immodest it has given my company a strategic advantage against our competitors in that time. Its also made me realize how important that knowledge and experience is when it comes to keeping safe in dangerous situations and Ill give you a couple of examples of that in a moment. I listened with some envy to Peter Cave talking about the Australian Safety Code for Journalists. It is a wonderful resource and guideline for employees and employers. Unfortunately we dont have something similar in New Zealand. In reality there are only a handful of us that get to do conflict reporting and bringing the major media players together to agree on something benefiting that small a number could be more problematic than covering a war. But after hearing the many valuable contributions from this conferences wonderful speakers, a New Zealand code or set of guidelines is something I will definitely pursue. And for the rest of you who dont have something similar to the Australian Safety Code, or the International News Safety Institute who better to try and instigate it than yourselves. Ive always looked as safety as an extension of health. That is Prevention is better than Cure.

Preventing yourself from being in the wrong place at the wrong time or being under equipped or ill prepared is certainly better than trying to remedy a dangerous or crisis situation. In 2006 whilst covering the War in Lebanon my crew and I travelled to border area of Lebanon and Israel. Wed spoken to a number of other journalists about which route to take was the best and had chosen to go down the Syrian side of the country through the Bekaa Valley. We managed to drive within a couple of kilometres of the border before being stopped by the Lebanese Army. We were close enough that we could see and film Israeli shells landing in nearby villages. We turned back and drove through what we thought was a deserted village. Pamphlets littered the streets. They had been dropped by the IDF and depicted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallahs head on the body of a snake, warning the villages residents to flee. We stopped and I was in the middle of filming a piece to camera when a Range Rover pulled up and out jumped four or five Hezbollah fighters. They took our keys off our driver and bundled us into the two vehicles, and we sped off through the village to a mechanical garage. It clearly wasnt the best situation to be in, but wed done our homework and thought we had a good understanding of Hezbollah. As a crew wed also discussed what might happen if we were confronted or captured by Hezbollah while travelling around that stronghold. We knew theyd never killed a foreign journalist before, and to the best of our knowledge had never kidnapped or detained a foreign journalist for any significant time. That information kept us calm and meant we didnt try and resist or attempt to escape and risk inflaming the situation. They took away our belongings including my backpack which had all of our cash in it, around six thousand US dollars. They took our passports and began checking them. Our Lebanese driver had been told if they discovered we were Israeli spies that he would be the first one shot, and while he was clearly agitated by that we were confident it would soon be over. After nearly two hours the leader returned our belongings, including my backpack, gesturing for me to check it. When I did I discovered all of our money was still in the bag, untouched. They then kissed us farewell and told us the quickest and safest route back to Beirut which we took. Experience and knowledge were the keys to surviving that incident, and while you cant teach experience, you can build knowledge by sharing what happened.

Know what youre up against before you head into it, try and anticipate various scenarios before they happen. But often the best lessons in life come not from your successes, but from your failures, and last year I was given a timely reminder of that in Bangkok. The conflict between the Thai Government and the Red Shirts had been going for two months. There had been various flash points, but as quickly as they arrived they would be over. When you live in New Zealand timing is everything. There is no point spending a day or two days to get somewhere only to discover when you get there that its all over. But there was a dramatic escalation in the level of violence in the middle weekend of May. The combined death toll of protesters and soldiers rose to 33 with more than 200 wounded. International broadcasters cancelled live crosses from the area fearing their reporters might be targets for snipers. On the Monday I met with my boss to discuss whether I should be reporting from Bangkok. Again it was a question of timing. Was the government going to continue with its military crackdown or would it ease back after the weekends casualties? We then heard that Thai military helicopters had dropped leaflets on the RedShirts camp urging the very young and the very old to leave by that afternoon. It was a sure sign that the push was still on. Our biggest problem now was getting there before it all unfolded. I decided - as it would take at least 24 hours to get journalists visas for Thailand - that Dutchie, my cameraman and I would go in as tourists. That meant taking a smaller camera, and not taking our flak jackets and helmets. We arrived in Bangkok the next day and like many other journalists stepped off the plane and took a taxi to the front line, in time to put together a story for our six oclock news. It definitely felt like something was about to happen. For once the time difference with New Zealand worked in our favour, my cameraman and I were wide awake with the Thai army armoured personnel carriers rolled past our hotel in the early hours of the morning. The soldiers were assembled behind their APCs about 50 metres directly opposite the Red-Shirts barricade. Around 100 reporters and camera crews were another 50 metres behind the soldiers, and above us perched on an over bridge were at least 20 army snipers. Im not sure how many warnings were given but as daylight came and the snipers above us had a clear view into the Red-Shirts camp, the bullets started.

The first few rounds were quite a shock as bullets whistled through the air around us. I guess wed all expected thered be some sort of protracted standoff as the military waited for the heavily outnumbered protesters to give up. Dutchie and I instantly knew we were in a dangerous position. If the Red-Shirts started shooting back at the soldiers we were standing directly in their firing line. It may sound like common sense, but unless youve been in a conflict situation where live rounds are being fired its difficult to know what you may or may not see as common sense. But at that moment we knew we had to move. As the noise of the gunfire rang around us Dutchie yelled at me, pointing at the soldiers crouched behind the APCs and said, We need to be up there. He was right. While it seemed the least safe thing to be running towards the conflict, it was the only decent cover around us. I yelled back to him that wed run as soon as the snipers above us opened up again, and a few minutes later we both made a dash for it. 50 metres can seem an awfully long way when youre wondering if one of those snipers is accidently going to drop his aim and hit you. It felt like we were running in slow motion and it was about then I realised not only were we both not wearing flak jackets and helmets, Dutchie was actually in shorts and jandals. Our inclination was right. Not long after wed made our run, a reporter standing near where wed been was wounded in the stomach. As we made it to the APC a couple of soldiers turned around with surprise. Thankfully they were too occupied with what was going on in front of them to be worried about us. I asked an army medic who was sheltering beside me if there had been any casualties and he said, Yes many. When I quizzed him about this by asking How many he answered, ominously, Not yet. Later that day it was confirmed another journalist, Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi, had been killed while covering the military crackdown. There was some conjecture over whether a Red-Shirt protester or a soldier had shot him. A reporter who had been near him said hed been photographing from the protesters side and running from advancing soldiers when he was hit. Another photographer showed me pictures of the aftermath as medics unsuccessfully tried to save Polenghis life. It was pretty sobering stuff. In the end our experience and instincts got us through, and we probably came away with a lot more than we deserved.

On reflection there was a lot about Bangkok that I would do differently. I think we put ourselves under too much pressure deciding so late in the piece to go. Im not blaming anyone for that but myself, and at the end of the day I could have said no. I had also completely underestimated how dangerous the situation was going to be, and in my desire to cover the conflict had lost sight of some of the best practices I have learned over the years. Theres a saying Ive heard amongst New Zealands Defence Force, one Im sure is used by other militaries too. It is There are old soldiers, and bold soldiers, but not many old, bold soldiers. Lets not kid ourselves. You cant do conflict reporting without willingly putting yourself in harm's way. The trick is limiting the risk to yourself and those around you. Id like to thank the International Committee of the Red Cross for putting together this conference, and for the invitation to speak. I think as a resource for learning this conference and others like it will undoubtedly be a great asset in the future. But the ultimate responsibility when it comes to ensuring journalists safety must lie with the individual. Absorb and use the lessons learned by others wisely but know the best person to look after you, is you.