How Do War Correspondents Do Their Jobs? (1 Viewer)

[Denward]

With the horrible Daniel Pearl story and another recent story about an injured journalist in the Middle East, I began wondering how these folks do their jobs?

How do they get footage of actual battle? Do armies allow cameramen behind their lines to take pictures? Do they exert any control over the content of the coverage? Are there international agreements designed to protect journalists? Do these journalists arm themselves?

If I were running an army, it's hard to imagine I would allow any extraneous people around that could possibly interfere with or compromise my operations.

 

[Jason Handy]

Most of the war correspondents that I have seen with footage of "in the fray" battle seem to be on urban battlegrounds. Beirut during the early 1980s, Jerusalem today, etc. We haven't seen much footage of battle in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq was not so up close either.

Personally, I believe that the cameramen that get such juicy footage get it by pure chance. I don't think they go running between bullets unless it starts around them. Anybody else?

Jason

 

[MikeAlletto]

Fox News Station's magazine show had a story about war correspondents. It made them sound like they are in it because of the adrenaline rush. The pay isn't good anymore and most of the really really good footage doesn't come from the professional folks, but from the amatuers.

 

[Don Black]

Most war reporters have the permission of whatever army they are riding along with to film. They are required to obtain visas and travel permits and must often bribe officials to do so. Reporters who proceed without these official permissions risk being killed on sight with no apologies.

Targetted countries, like the Serb republic and Iraq, often create propaganda tours for reporters which are controlled bus rides to and from staged (or maybe real) battle fields.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

They had a J.A.G. episode about one of those. He had to sign a statement saying that whatever soldier was in charge had complete control over his actions while he was with them. I have no idea how true it was but it sounded ok to me.
Glenn