The dangerous business of news

George Jarrett covers the 22nd Rory Peck Awards event and talks to some canny journalists about safety, risk and luck

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George JarrettPublish date:

Mar 8, 2017Social count:

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George Jarrett covers the 22nd Rory Peck Awards event and talks to some canny journalists about safety, risk and luck

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The Rory Peck Awards 2016 saw nine experienced finalists emerge from 101 entries, submitted by freelance journalists from 36 nations. UK nationals were responsible for 20 entries across the three Sony-sponsored categories, and another five entries saw UK names partner American, Israeli, Afghan, French and Mexican journalists on projects. American nationals fielded nine entries, with French journalists totalling seven.

BAFTA was the venue for the first awards night back in 1995, and a single prize saw just 15 entries competing. Since then, the Rory Peck Trust has become one of the most effective and best-loved small charities in the world, thanks to the support of the world's big players in the news business, and a constantly committed staff.

James Mates, chair of the judging panel for news and Europe editor, ITV News, says, We faced unprecedented quality. Reducing this to just three finalists was almost impossible. In the dim and distant past, some of the material you would get from freelancers and through agencies was sometimes of mixed quality. That is no longer the case.

One of the biggest changes we have seen in our industry is the improvement in the quality of both journalism and video, Mates adds.

When commenting on (Yemeni) Nabil Hassan's news finalist The Battle for Aden, a brilliant report of anti-rebel militiamen battling Houthi rebels for possession of Aden, Mates is succinct: News organisations are desperate for this stuff.

It is less than possible for Western reporters and cameramen to operate at all, so we completely rely and the world completely relies on people like Nabil shooting material so we have some idea of what is going on, some sense of what's driving the conflict, how serious it is, and how many victims there are.

Hassan is clear about casualties: 18 Yemeni journalists had been killed trying to do what he had done for AFP.

A lot of it was on the spot

Greek national Will Vassilopoulos won the Rory Peck award for news for his story Fear and Desperation: Refugees and Migrants Pour into Greece. This follows a good percentage of the 860,000 migrants who landed in Greece last year.

It was very challenging for numerous reasons, but the one I would like to address is the emotional toll it had on all of us working in the field, he says. What I found most difficult in the film was sticking a camera in front of their faces when they were at their most vulnerable, when they landed on an island, all of them terrified, and then going north to the Macedonian borders, where the conditions were absolutely horrific.

Vassilopoulos filmed with utmost respect for the migrants, and treated them with dignity. He shot from October 2015 to March 2016. He says, It's a story that needed to be told. It's not only very important for the Middle East, but it is also how Europe is being shaped by the migration crisis.

This was not about how many hours that I shot, it's all about how many hours that went out to clients. At least a dozen hours went to outlets through Agence France-Presse, he adds. A lot of this footage is rushes for the news agency, so it is not necessarily following people from entry to end. A lot of it was on the spot, so I could tell many stories. I would find particular people, gain their trust, build a rapport with them, and try and tell the stories at that location.

A failed state on the doorstep of Europe

Italian journalist Marco Salustro collected the award for news features with another migration tale called Libyas Migrant Trade: Europe or Die, which was shot for Vice News in June 2015.

Salustro, who was applauded for delivering the sense of fear, insecurity and lack of hopethat dogged all of the migrants he encountered, says, The militia I filmed thought my work was useful for them, because they wanted to have recognition from the government. They were quite happy to show me how they were treating the migrants.

He shot 20 hours worth of material, which was cut back to 30 minutes for the winning title.

I had been to Libya seven times before this film and I worked on another film on this issue a few months before, so I had the contacts and everything was quite easy for me, he explains. This is a big story. The Western media is full of migrant and Islamic State stories, but there are lots of problems in Libya that are unresolved and we are facing a country that is on the verge of collapse. In a short time, we will have a failed state on the doorstep of Europe, and migration will be unanswerable.

Some of his wonderful shots are from inside the detention centre run by the militia. I was given half an hour there and just left the camera rolling while the migrants told their stories, without translation as there was no time, says Salustro.

Migrant family though a lens

German filmmaker Marcel Mettelsiefen won the Sony Impact award for current affairs with his brilliant entry Children on the Frontline: The Escape, which is part two of a story he told in 2013 about the children of a rebel commander in Aleppo.

Shot in Syria, Turkey and Germany until April 2016, and seen on Channel 4's Dispatches;his winning story follows the family after ISIS captured the father. The mother, three daughters and a son escape from Aleppo to Turkey, and then onto Germany and a new life.

The judges say that it is very rare for a filmmaker to be so immersed in his subject: the consequence being that the Mettelsiefen camera was totally invisible.

He says, This took three years of my life. Documentary filmmaking is one

LINK:	https://www.tvbeurope.com/features-2/64978-2...
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