“Unseen Gaza”

Wanted to post on last Thursday’s excellent C4 Dispatches docu “Unseen Gaza” – presented by Jon Snow.  Seriously good stuff…just a shame that it clashed with the 2nd half of BBC’s “Question Time”…but “Unseen” was too good to miss. 

If you’d like to watch, I’ve included a link (see foot of post).  IF you don’t have time, here’s a summary :

Several highly topical / relevant  themes were covered :

(1)  Serious restrictions (in the physical / geographical sense) imposed by Israeli army on journalists’ ability to report

Most (if not all) journalists were kept at some distance (often several kilometres) from the conflict’s hotspots.  In fact, most were barred from Gaza at all.   Inevitably, this made accurate first-hand reporting impossible – the J’s literally couldn’t get close enough to use their own eyes / ears/cameras  to report.  BUT, of course, this still didn’t / couldn’t restrict anyone caught within the area from capturing images / reports using personal digi technology.  AND, as ever, some truly determined, risk-taking J’s did manage to get close enough to the action to report.  What would you do in that situation? 

(2)  Questions over balance and impartiality in reporting the conflict by Western media

A big chunk of the debate.  There were several contributions from “non-Western” sources, including a group of young London Muslims, a Palestinian family in the region and the chief editor for AlJazeera.  This illustrated the huge difference in the style / content of reporting – as between Western media (BBC included) and non-Western (especially Arabic) media.  Much of the non-Western criticism came from perceptions of (a) tolerance of the Israeli offensive and (b) the “cleansing” of reports of the conflict, especially for the omission of reports /images of the death, damage and destruction wrought upon Palestinian civilians, especially children.

The non-Westerners argued that “war is war” and, if to be reported fairly and accurately, needs to be shown in all its horrific detail, civilian / child deaths included.  There was clear anger at the apparent Israeli disregard for this type of so-called collateral damage.  The Israelis argued (as they have done repeatedly) that this was the fault of Hamas, for their policy of deliberately using civilian homes / facilities as tactical sites for their conflict, including for rocket-launching.

There was a particularly interesting section where we were in the living room of a Palestinian family and they were watching / commenting on the televsion reports they were watching at the time.  Big differences from impressions you’d find in most  British living rooms.

(3)  Questions over “taste & decency” – especially on the nature of film / images included in bulletins

Now, we’ve explored this one in the newsroom before.  Where DO you draw the line?  Where IS the boundary between fair/accurate/balanced reporting and reports which go beyond acceptable taste & decency?  What do the main Editorial and Producer Guidelines say? 

Much of the non-Western contribution argued that, no matter how harrowing / disturbing, reports should cover the gory details.  If you’re telling the story, you need to tell the full story, or at least give a true reflection of both sides.  Jeremy Bowen (BBC Middle East Editor) argued that, in fact, there’s a greater risk of numbing / desensitising your audience if you do.  He felt (as did Peter |Horrocks, Head of BBC TV News) that some form of “censorship” (my word) was not only acceptable but desirable.

(4)  The fact that digital technology has really “opened the field” in terms of the capture , reporting / broadcast of news, especially by non-professional broadcasters.

The fact is that so many people now have access to forms of digital technology which allow them to capture, record and report / broadcast “news”.  Media professionals and all others alike.  It really doesn’t matter who you are – if you have the technology, you can do it.  And, of course, you have a choice of platforms if you choose to tell your “story”….platforms (via the internet) that deliver you, effectively free-of-charge a potential worldwide audience.  And we all know, there’s no effective editiorial or other control over much of this user-generated content.  Interesting times .

I took away a 3 strong messages from the docu.  (1)  How truly difficult it is, especially when reporting war / conflict, to produce fair, accurate and balanced reports – at least ones that’ll come across like that to the majority of your audience (2) In telling your story, where IS the line on taste & decency?  (3)  Digitial technology means that just about anyone, trained or untrained, professional or amateur, professionally regulated or unregulated, can capture, record and report / broadcast news.

Here’s the link to the docu (or you can use the “tinyurl” link below – a neat wee trick for tidying long-links shown to me by Richard Hammond)

http://www.channel4.com/catchup-player/player.htm?brandId=dispatches-unseen-gaza&contractId=47560&episodeId=3 

http://tinyurl.com/ba6zwb

See you all tomorrow, Weds 28 Jan, for our Group meeting.

Saul