- Steve Herrmann
- 29 Nov 07, 04:15 PM
I wrote here recently about the launch of the tenth in our series of correspondent's blogs and looked back at how they've developed into a key element in our journalism.
This week I was delighted to hear that two of our bloggers have won awards. Robert Peston won the digital media category of the BVCA Private Equity & Venture Capitalist Journalist of the Year Awards for his work on Peston's Picks (more details ), while Nick Robinson was the recipient of the 's 'political journalist of the year' award. The judges commented on the "clarity and verve" of his political coverage, his ability to "convey accurately and concisely key political and electoral developments", and commended his Newslog for encouraging "lively political debate".
Both Robert and Nick have been blogging particularly energetically of late, as they have chronicled the Northern Rock and Labour donations stories, and the recognition is very well earned.
Steve Herrmann is editor of the
- Simon Waldman
- 29 Nov 07, 03:24 PM
Dramatic live coverage this morning from Manila where a group of rebel soldiers were holed up. The rebels were demanding the resignation of Philippines President Arroyo - essentially trying to mount a coup d'etat. The security forces fired teargas and used an armoured personnel carrier to batter their way in. And we watched it all live on News 24 (you can see some of the footage here).
I've blogged in the past about the compelling nature of live pictures, but today's events posed even more problems than usual.
Problem 1:
What exactly was going on?
As well as conveying the latest information - in a rapidly changing situation - we had to provide analysis and background for those of us not intimately familiar with the latest twists and turns in the power struggle in the Philippines. Which meant the newsroom team were frantically trying to find eyewitnesses to describe what THEY could see, as well as getting the political context from - amongst others - our world affairs correspondents in London and newspaper journalists in Manila.
One highlight was a British tourist who ended up trapped in a shop opposite the hotel - she gave us a fascinating eyewitness account and is perhaps the first person to have had a foot massage interrupted by an attempted coup.
Problem 2:
Our one man on the spot - who gets him?
أغر؟´«أ½ Manila correspondent Michael Barker was reporting live - for News 24 and أغر؟´«أ½ World as well as World Service radio - from the hotel lobby as the drama unfolded. It is often quite a juggling act to make sure all the various أغر؟´«أ½ outlets get a fair share of the one correspondent in the thick of the story. Today, Radio 5 Live were the unfortunate victims of a lost phone connection just as they were about to interview him. They used some excellent local journalists outside the hotel instead.
Problem 3:
Live pictures - really?
Most of the feed from Manila was live - with cameras both outside the hotel and in a corridor inside. But sometimes, with no warning, the news agency switched to recorded images. I think we managed to make clear to the audience which bits of our coverage were live and which were not.
Problem 4:
Could this turn really nasty?
The biggest issue facing us this morning - and an ever-present consideration when transmitting live pictures. Even on a news channel, which does what it says on the tin, we don't want to show viewers overly graphic images of injury or death. We take great care to try to convey the seriousness of a story, but without being gratuitous or sensational in our use of pictures.
Today, we were ready to leave the live stream of pictures at any moment - and when we saw the APC firing into the hotel lobby, we came very close to making that decision. As it happened, the most distressing pictures were of journalists and rebels clearly affected by tear gas.
There is a tried and tested plan B for these circumstances: to show potentially shocking pictures not live, but with a 10 or 15 second delay. Some radio stations do this with phone-ins, so they can stop the real nutters getting on air. And WE do it so that someone monitoring the live feed can yell "too gory - don't show this bit" - allowing us to switch instantly to some acceptable recorded pictures before the unacceptable images were broadcast. Today, we stayed - slightly nervously - with the live feed. But it was a close call.
By the end of today, I expect that this morning's coup attempt will have disappeared from the headlines - but it was riveting while it was happening. I hope we conveyed that, and helped explain why it was important.
Update, Tues 11:00 AM: Thanks for your comments, I've replied to some here.
Simon Waldman is morning editor on أغر؟´«أ½ News
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