Travel advisory for journalists working in Libya

May 14, 2013 Leave a comment

By INSI

Security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy wounding two French guards and causing extensive material damage in Tripoli, Libya, April 23 2013. (AP Photo/Abdul Majeed Forjani)

Security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy wounding two French guards and causing extensive material damage in Tripoli, Libya, April 23 2013. (AP Photo/Abdul Majeed Forjani)

The security situation in Libya remains volatile despite the conflict ending there in 2011. Intermittent fighting has broken out between rival ethnic and tribal groups across the country, and last month multiple kidnappings of media workers by armed militia were reported. The killing of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, in an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi last September means that international visitors are focusing on security more than ever before.

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Updated safety advisory for journalists and news crews covering Libya

January 28, 2013 Leave a comment

By Helena Williams

Libyans watch a protest against Ansar al-Shariah Brigades and other Islamic militias, in Benghazi, September 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

Libyans watch a protest against Ansar al-Shariah Brigades and other Islamic militias, in Benghazi, September 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

The International News Safety Institute has updated their safety advisory for journalists and news crews covering the conflict in Libya, to include a section about the security situation in Misrata and the Ras Jedir border crossing.

The updated information (Libya as at 28/01/13) advises media workers that there is a ban on vehicles with no license plates and on those with tinted film in their windows. This ban, alongside a partial gun ban, follows the assassination of local council member Mohamed Ben Othman on Saturday 26 January and those of two security officials on Wednesday 23 January.

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SAFETY ADVISORY: Libya as at 28/01/13

January 28, 2013 Leave a comment

By INSI

Libyans watch a protest against Ansar al-Shariah Brigades and other Islamic militias, in Benghazi, September 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

Libyans watch a protest against Ansar al-Shariah Brigades and other Islamic militias, in Benghazi, September 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

UPDATE – 24/01/13

The International News Safety Institute has been alerted by credible sources that terrorist organisations may be planning to attack oil fields in Libya.

Intelligence suggests that the attacks may mirror last week’s hostage situation in Algeria.

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‘I want to share with the next generation of journalists what I wish I knew 20 years ago’

October 9, 2012 2 Comments

By Helena Williams

James Rodgers has covered conflicts in Chechnya, Gaza and Iraq for the BBC (Photo: Helena Williams)

Like many former foreign correspondents, James Rodgers, who has covered conflicts in Chechnya, Gaza and Iraq, has written a book based on his experiences. But instead of taking what is fast becoming the regular line of war journalism memoirs – tales of near misses and narrow escapes – Rodger’s latest offering is an academic, in-depth study of the role of journalism in wartime. It is a fitting topic for the post he has taken as lecturer at City University London, one of the world’s leading journalism schools.

Q. Journalism and academia don’t usually go hand in hand. Why did you write an academic book rather than a punchy memoir?

My main motivation is to share with the next generation of journalists what I wish I knew 20 years ago.

Journalists don’t read much about what academics write about, but I used my experience as research material. I wanted to write a book which would give a greater understanding of the process [of war reporting].

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Hotel Libya – Journalist relives the horror story

August 21, 2012 1 Comment

By Helena Williams

A journalist walks under a banner which has been displayed by members of the media staying at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli August 22, 2011 (Reuters)

“We were in the lobby of the hotel with our bags because we were just waiting to leave. I remember the Red Cross representatives walking into the hotel… you could see them coming around one of the walls, with their Red Cross uniforms on… Oh my God, what a moment. I broke down crying. It felt like a huge burden had gone. I’ll never forget that moment.”

 More than 30 foreign correspondents were trapped inside the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, during the final days of the Gaddafi regime in August 2011.

 Like Hotel Rwanda in the midst of the genocide, the Rixos was an oasis of relative safety in a world gone mad.

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A shot too far? Exhibition explores conflict coverage and trauma

June 11, 2012 Leave a comment

By Helena Williams

A wounded man sits in shock above the blood-soaked floor at Jinnah Medical Centre. At least 140 people were killed in a suicide bombing aimed at assassinating former Prime Minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. October 19, 2007. Karachi, Pakistan. (©Warrick Page/Getty Images)

“As a curator, you aren’t normally used to your artists dying on you.”

When photojournalist Tim Hetherington was killed while covering the war in Libya last year, curator Sarah Schuster felt the impact of his death. She had been working with him on an exhibition that will explore the psychological effects of war coverage on journalists.

“When he died I was upset. It was surprised how hard it hit, because I didn’t feel I had the right to be upset. It brought home a whole different perspective,” she said in an interview with INSI.

Schuster, 32, has curated exhibitions for 10 years. But her new project, “One Shot Over the Line: Conflict Journalists and Trauma” is a far cry from her previous endeavours, which included a Zaha Hadid retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York.

She wanted to explore the gritty lifestyle of war correspondents and bring to light the challenges they face every day.

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NYC auction to raise funds for children of fallen photographer Anton Hammerl

May 15, 2012 Leave a comment

By Helena Williams

Anton Hammerl in Brega shortly before he disappeared (Unai Arandzadi)

Images by renowned photographers will be auctioned at Christie’s New York auction house today in honour of a South African photojournalist who was killed in Libya in 2011.

Anton Hammerl was travelling in Brega, Eastern Libya, with three other journalists, Clare Morgana Gillis of USA Today, GlobalPost correspondent James Foley and Manu Brabo, a Spanish photographer, when they were ambushed by pro-Gaddafi forces.

The troops shot and killed Hammerl in the desert. His family believed he was alive and being held by the Libyan government, as the three other journalists were, for several weeks. His body has still not been recovered.

The first ever auction of contemporary photojournalism is being held to raise funds for Anton’s three young children. It features images by some of the world’s leading photojournalists including Robert Capa, Sebastiano Salgado, Tim Hetherington and Kate Brooks.

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Luck, safety and the Arab Spring

April 5, 2012 Leave a comment

By Helena Williams

Two searingly different portrayals of the Libyan uprisings show the incredible impact the “true revolution” has had on two reporters’ lives.

Sky special correspondent and her news team were the first to enter Green Square on the night the Gaddafi regime crumbled (Sky/Alex Crawford)

Sky special correspondent and her news team were the first to enter Green Square on the night the Gaddafi regime crumbled (Sky/Alex Crawford)

The past year has been relentless for journalists covering the uprisings that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa.

Dozens of news media personnel have been killed covering the events since the start of the Arab Spring just over a year ago.

Many more have been injured, detained and assaulted.

The issue of safety has rarely been more pertinent, and more present in newsrooms and living rooms, as the Arab Spring has cost the lives of a number of renowned journalists, including Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya last year and, more recently in Syria, those of Anthony Shadid, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. At a time when the risks of conflict reporting are searing and stark, Channel 4′s International News Editor Lindsey Hilsum and Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, both distinguished television correspondents, say that covering Libya has had a massive impact on their lives.

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