Reporting conflict from South Africa-BBC WS

Having posted in Adrian Monck's blog re: him talking about the death of a talented young journalists in Iraq, I started thinking of some of the things I got upto in South Africa circa 1992-94.

Here right white militants have exploded a bomb in joberg on the eve of the election. It shook the house I was staying in. The BBC WS whom I'd now built up a relationship with rang and asked for a two way. I'd been down to the scenes past the police cordon flashing my media badge.

Below is the original post from Adrian's site and my reaction.

Journalism education: my unfinished business

Thursday, 19 March, 2009

Whenever people ask me why I left television news (a world which - I have to say - I loved) to run a J-School, I never give the real answer.

Because the real answer is just the name of someone they (and you) probably won’t ever have heard of: Richard Wild.

Richard is gone now. He was shot dead in Baghdad in 2003. I wrote the letter that got him in to Iraq. [more…]

-- my response.

david dunkley gyimah 04.01.09 at 8:46 am

That’s a tough one to carry around Adrian. I remember reading about Richard in The Guardian and posted briefly on him last year.

It struck me as well, as often when asked by friends wanting to get a relative into journalism my advice was along the lines of ..”travel if you can to the story”.

If it’s a hot zone and you consider you have a good head, then be cautious, but go for it. I gave such advice to a senior exec from Chatham House, who would become my mentor.

For it was while fortuitously in a BBC studio interviewing South Africa’s Embassy head Kent Durr about the Boipatong Massacres with my soon -to-be-mentor there, that following the discussion, I made the decision to relocate to South Africa for 18 months.

One of the then BBC’s producers in Joberg was a savvy, streetwise, six-languages speaking journo who would take me off to see the local Totseis. ” David you just need these people to see you. They carry a lot of clout”, he’d whisper.

Though I was extremely cautious, I look back on those times travelling around the townships; night time drives in some of the worst troubled spots, and sometimes question what I was doing. I was a freelancer. A report brought in 200 UKP, but on one occasion I signed a disclaimer as I climbed into a truck for a night patrol in Katlehong - then designated the murder capital of the world.

My advice to new journalists now has changed somewhat. Richard’s death was one of the straws.

Cannabalising post from Prof Monck - Shark Attacks

Before leaving for his two weeks of the exclusive island resort somewhere near the Fijian Islands, Super blogger and author, Crunch Time, Adrian Monck posted this.

The Sun got itself well and truly stung. Us TV types look forward to a full independent inquiry into how the paper was fooled and how it carried the hoax forward to its readers.


In a shameless deed of cross canabilisation, I posted this on his blog and just in case you're not one of his regular readers, posted my response here.


OK, so we won’t be holding our breath.

. . . but was it fooled? No one's talking. Well at least that's what being reported.

Can't remember where I read/heard, but what appears to emerge is the local newspaper which first showed the pictures had a circulation bonanza. So, The Sun?

Coast authorities are reported saying rather than deterring visitors and surfers, it's done the converse.

So could this not be an up to date version of The Sun's 1986 headline "Freddie Starr ate my Hamster" ?

It is after all the "Silly Season", though that's hardly true looking at other news events.

In the end you could argue:
* No one was injured from the piece's publication. No that's not a reason to publish unsubstantiated claims.

* Some (?) made a tidy sum from the event; the original photographer claims not to have profited.

*Our penchant for the occasional whaky story retains our chutzpah for eccentricity and the Monty Pythonesque: "It's a dead Parrot !"
!
* Tourism to the UK will be boosted as a result: Hey those zaney Brits are at it again.

* David Letterman will probably have done a sketch by now, thus aiding the Sun's brand quotient.

Letterman: 10 things associated with Brits that are just er, mad funny.
1. They put custard on apple pie and eat jelly, yuk! (bum, bum)
2. They soak vinegar on their chips. (Ba-de-bum)
3. They call the sidewalk, the pavement. (ping)
4. Soccer is football £@&*% (hahahaha)

Drum roll

5. They speak with a funny accent (Boo)
6. Body wind jokes are funny ( no sfx here please)
7. He has a blond flop, speaks with rotund vowels and wants to be Mayor of England.
What?
Oh he want's to be Mayor of Hackney.
Where then? C'mon researchers do yer work!
8. Beckam turns down movie role to play soccer (swoon. whaaaat. He's maaad)
9. They named this bell here Ben. No, it's not an ex-boxer.
10. More Sharks, this time in the middle of London. (Hahahahaha..that's funneee)
(whispers to Letterman) Er, yes they're actually at this place that used to be city hall.
Oh!

* Itt's invigorated further talk/column inches of "what is journalism?"
*And finally The Sun has a good stab at achieving google-rank supremacy with the word, "shark". One last push.

I reckon there are a couple of execs at Canary Wharf with a G&T in one hand and a mobile in the other to Kelvin MacKenzie having a wee giggle.

In front of them is Peter Snow's (BBC Newsnight) retired war pit and they're shuffling pieces around looking for the next big story. No sorry, that's some other newspaper exec (Black).

There are lies, damn lies and statistics. But then factually with this story we might never know.
NB: A footnote for someone's autobio.

BTW, did you hear about the network news broadcast which flagged up a pic of a very famous rapper with a reference to the dark side of pharmacy? Surely shum mistake.

p.s. Apologies for any typos in advanced Prof Monck :) Have a good hols Adrian