31 março 2003

VITAMEDIAS
What can you show? As debate continues over which war footage is too gruesome for television, three TV news bosses reveal their rules [Nick Pollard, head of Sky News; Richard Sambrook, BBC director of news; Chris Cramer, president of CNN International Networks]:
With the prisoners of war, there are two questions. One is identification. We [BBC] have agreed to check with the Ministry of Defence about whether families know before we broadcast them. Second, there's the Geneva convention issue, which I think is specious. The Pentagon is arguing that we are complicit if we show the pictures. The convention is clear - it applies to countries not broadcasters. [...]
There is no textbook for broadcast news editors in covering the war against Iraq. [...]
In this war, TV editors are facing minute-to-minute decisions as, despite our misgivings, CNN's embedded teams and the pool reporters travel and work alongside military units. [...]
As we do our best to cover this war, we could do well to remember that editorial prowess is never defined by how many gratuitous images can be transmitted, but by the accuracy of our journalism, and the tone of our coverage.