Speaking at yesterday evening’s Frontline Club event on the pressures of reporting conflict, Jon Williams said officials at the Foreign Office were concerned that they could not guarantee the safety of journalists on the ground.
Williams playfully described the advice as “very generous”, but said broadcasters told the Foreign Office that they would “accept responsibility” for having their journalists report from dangerous locations.
Williams also claimed there were “lots of hints from the British” that BBC Correspondent Jeremy Bowen’s interview with Colonel Gaddafi in February “really wasn’t very helpful”.
NATO officially took control of all aspects of the military campaign in Libya on 31 March although British, French and US airstrikes had begun on 19 March two days after UN Resolution 1973 had been passed.
The resolution called for a no fly zone and measures to protect the civilian population from Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.
]]>After the headlines trumpeting that Alex Crawford and Sky News were clear winners of the battle for reporting Tripoli, we will be taking stock of this recent chapter in covering modern warfare.
With a panel of newsroom executives and frontline journalists we will discuss how the conflict in Libya was reported and what its legacy is likely to be.
]]>IN ASSOCIATION WITH BBC COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM
After the headlines trumpeting that Alex Crawford and Sky News were clear winners of the battle for reporting Tripoli, we will be taking stock of this recent chapter in covering modern warfare.
With a panel of newsroom executives and frontline journalists we will discuss how the conflict in Libya was reported and what its legacy is likely to be.
If the death of ITV News correspondent Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003 raised awareness about safety and risk in modern conflict, what can we learn from the reporting that took journalists right into the heart of the battle, the journalists who were held in the Rixos hotel and the competition between the channels? What are the pressures for both news executives and journalists in such circumstances?
Chaired by former BBC executive Vin Ray.
With:
Bill Neely, international editor for ITV News;
Sarah Whitehead, head of international news at Sky News;
Jon Williams, BBC’s world news editor.
Inigo Gilmore, award winning journalist and filmmaker who has worked across the world, with extensive experience in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He won the Royal Television Society Award in 2011 for his work in Haiti last year, following earthquake.
Picture credit: Gwydion M. Williams
]]>