Your wonderful and kind messages mean so much to us, as has your friendship, council and support over so many years. There is no prize in our trade that we could ever value as much as your belief in us.

– Vaughan and Pranvera Smith

 

Thank you to Stewart Purvis, Richard Gizbert, Tina Carr, Emma Beals, Allan Little, Mani, Stuart Hughes, Richard Sambrook, Jon Snow, Marina Litvinenko, Martin Bell, Tom Fenton, Anthony Loyd, Lyse Doucet, Bill Neely, Lindsey Hilsum, Charles Glass, John G Morris, Salim Amin, Liz Palmer Gary Knight, Jon Lee Anderson, Jeremy Bowen, Matt Frei and Jean-Jacques Gonfier.

By Will Spens

The continued release from WikiLeaks and several major newspapers including The Guardian, Der Spiegel and The New York Times of 251,287 leaked US embassy cables is causing a flood of headlines across the world. Last night at the Frontline Club author and broadcaster Tom Fenton chaired a heated discussion with an expert panel including WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson.

With Interpol having issued a red notice for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his current location is being kept secret. Representing WikiLeaks was spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson. Asked whether Assange being in hiding was evidence of WikiLeaks’ own lack of transparency, Hrafnsson responded that ‘to equate Julian remaining in hiding with the lack of transparency seen from governments is completely unfounded’.

With him was James Ball, a data journalist who has been working with WikiLeaks since the Iraq War Logs were released. Asked what this new release means, Ball said that it was ‘an incredibly significant trove of material’ which could have real ‘geopolitical consequences’.  He went on to say that ‘secrecy in diplomacy should be the exception, not the norm’ and justified the release by saying that the public ‘can only make an informed vote if [they] know what is happening’.

Professor Colleen Graffy, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy held the view that the leaking of previously confidential cables will lead to ‘complications for communications for diplomats in future.’ If people were not able to speak freely to diplomats without fear of being exposed this would have a ‘chilling effect’ on the international community. She was also adamant that secrecy was essential for allowing sensitive, behind the scenes diplomacy to take place. ‘How many years is it going to put back reunification with Korea?’ was her impassioned response to the recently leaked revelation that China seems no longer to view North Korea as useful leverage on the world stage.

She was joined in much of her advocacy for diplomatic confidentiality by Sir Richard Dalton, a former UK Ambassador to both Libya and Iran. Asked whether he thought that the release would have repercussions for, or alter the foreign policy of the US, he responded that ‘the facts of diplomacy will remain the same as they always have’ but asserted ‘the material does not belong in the public domain’. He said that both the Afghan and Iraq War Logs were ‘perhaps a clearer case of public interest’ than confidential diplomatic cables, but then went on to say that once the material was released, it was always going to be printed and therefore the notion that WikiLeaks should be shouldering the blame is perhaps unnecessary.

“Today, guidance is more vital than ever. At the extreme, it saves lives. It can mean the difference between insipid insight and getting things dead wrong,” said Mort Rosenblum, reading aloud from his new book Little Bunch of Madmen on international reporting last night. “Trial and error is no way to cover events that help shape the course of a planet.”

“In a changed world, we need new frames of reference,” continued Rosenblum who was flanked by Tom Fenton and Jon Swain, both experienced bureau hands like himself.

The book is in part a tribute to the ‘old gang’ members, but Rosenblum is also dedicated to ‘the new guard’:

Last night’s Frontline Club crowd was suitably full of young faces eager to pick up all they could from this seasoned correspondent who started his reporting career in 1965 and has run AP bureaus in the Congo, West Africa, Southeast Asia, Argentina and France. He was also editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris.

First he had some good news: “It’s never been so easy,” said Rosenblum, before adding that “you just have to be willing to starve to death for a while.”

“It’s not a question of experience, it’s a question of getting it.” Rosenblum continued. Asked if it’s still possible to find work by simply going sonewhere and winging it, the general consensus was affirmative – although Jon Swain advised building a relationship with foreign editors beforehand.

“It’s all a question of your own hustle,” Rosenblum agreed.“Taking a few chances, but not dumb ones.”

The discussion turned to an article written by the Independent’s Patrick Cockburn on the failures of embedded frontline journalism.

Reporters, said Rosenblum, “need the ability to move around the battlefield and just do it”. However,  Swain argued, good reporters “can see through the bullshit”.

The panel was also asked if the agreed with Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger’s recent claim that ‘We must be ready to lose some stories to avoid losing yet more lives.’

The answer was a resounding ‘no’: “The news game is a dangerous business,that’s something we should be prepared to take,” said Swain, who pointed out that in Cambodia, the casualties had been much higher:

“We lost 11 in one day,” he said, adding that the story was always considered more important, the risk an accepted fact.

Discussing the internet and social media, Fenton made the point that they give the impression that there is more news, when in fact there are fewer journalists in the field producing less high-quality journalism. “It’s good to have a news flash, but you’ve got to have boots on the ground,” he said.

Picking out the young faces in the crowd, Fenton said: “If I were your age, I’d go for it. There’ll be a need for you. There is a need for information. The basic craft is something we really can’t do without.”

“Handing in a story. That’s the fucking Pulitzer for me,” said Rosenblum to murmurs of agreement from the master craftsmen on both sides.