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Statement by Mariana Sanchez
Venezuela Correspondent
Al Jazeera International
2005 was the worst year for journalism around the world. The highest with colleagues injured or killed, around the world, specially covering the war in Iraq. Journalists who went out, risking their lives in search for the truth.
Covering the news in a conflict zone isn't only a dangerous business. It is also sad, frustrating, physically. Demanding, mind draining... Sometimes too, it gets very scary.
The thought inevitably crosses your mind at the most difficult times: is it really worth it?
Some viewers or readers may think war reporting is glamorous thing to do.
For some journalists war reporting is a stepping stone for their careers.
So why would anyone take risks to get a photo, to get video, to get to see what is really happening and why?
I've covered conflict from different fronts.And it was back in Peru where I felt I had to go.
Working in the nightly news, when the war in Bosnia was at its peak. Our TV' s sets were filled with the horrifying images of a bloody market, images of a man or a woman crossing infamous sniper alley.
The newspapers had their own stories: the woman who had to send a child everyday to pick up wood in the front lines because she couldn't afford dying and leaving her other children on their own.... Or the story of the couple, a Serb and a Bosnian Muslim, lovers who died on a bridge trying to escape the war
The thought of war in Europe was mind-breaking. How could this be happening? Could something be done from Peru? I thought we needed to know more, to know ahead, why didn't we, at home, in our living rooms, among friends understand what was going on in the Balkans?
It was war in Europe!!!!
Then, without warnings... Straight on... The pictures from Rwanda took over the TV sets. Before I even understood who the Tutsis and Hutus were, genocide happened, almost in front of our eyes.
On the airwaves, on our screens, we could hardly hear the shootings, the machetes striking, the mothers pleading for the lives of their children. Men murdering entire families, babies... We learned all too late.
Was that for real? Can there be anything more revolting for anyone's imagination? What could have been done?
The images were right in front of us: there is war in Chechnya, war in Colombia, war in Congo!!!
Being from a Peruvian generation who sort of understood the horrors of the civil war with the shining path, I thought had to be free to go and tell what I saw.
Being able to go in search of the truth, being freelance is doubly difficult: no one pays for living in a conflict zone, you have no medical insurance, you have to be creative to move around to be able to see and report. You must also have someone to buy your stories. When I arrived in Kosovo, I had no idea how to cover, how to move, the history of the place... It was by the end of 98, and truly no one that I knew of in the Latin American media interested at all in Kosovo. For two months I couldn't sell a story.
Back to the meaning of this. There is a book: "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning". That's the title of a powerful book by journalist, Chris Hedges.
He says of in "The Seduction of Battle and the Perversion of War" - his chapter 4: ".the images handed to us, even when they are graphic, leave out the one essential element of war: fear. the visual and audio effects of films, the battlefield descriptions in books, make the experience appear real. In fact it is sterile. We are safe. We do not smell rotting flesh, hear the cries of agony, or see the blood and entrails seeping out of bodies. The war as displayed by the entertainment industry might, in most cases, as well be a ballet."
And that's exactly what I came to know: the fear, the smell of death, the impact of listening to shootings...
Is it worth risking your life? Why?
How can an Argentinean relate to a Kosovar, or a Nicaraguan to a Chechen?
In a dangerous zone an instinct of survival takes over, for yourself, and to protect the most vulnerable.
When you hear an army has surrounded a town, and has taken all the men away, as young as 12 years old, and you know they will be killed... Or when the FARC or the PARAS in Colombia escalate their attacks and you know campesinos will be massacred. What are we as journalists supposed to do?
But is it really worth the risk?
When you have to recognize the body of your own friends, killed while covering the news, things change, of course dying to get to the truth is then not worth it.
And then you think: there are children. There human beings are involved. People will get killed... And then you feel you have an obligation. This is what you do. It is worth the risk.
Do we journalists, by telling the truth, by bringing back the stories, by exercising our rights of informing the public, I am convinced we contribute to make life better.
Giving a voice to the needy, the most vulnerable, pointing our fingers at authorities is a fundamental right.
But there must be a consensus among us journalists as well that we have to work towards being a representative of each other. If journalists carry guns, the idea that journalists carry guns will be out there. That is not good for us who don't.
If journalists don't commit to the principles of journalism then new generations will get the wrong idea: "oh I will study to be in the television news 'cause I want to be famous."
We are living in a different world, much different from even 10 years ago. Our business is undergoing changes because of the internet.
But there are things that don't change. Rights should be the same for everyone. And that's why I am convinced that there must a way for people in Sydney to relate to the campesinos in Colombia and maybe be creative to make a difference.
As journalists we can contribute to make solidarity a global concept. We can contribute to bring awareness about the poverty around the world.
For me, that is the real meaning of the free press. To not forget why we are embarked in this profession that while it may be sad, frustrating or risky it is tremendously rewarding when the message gets through.
Press release>>
Video of the panel discussion>>
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