An army of journalists and broadcasters will fight it out in the Gulf for exclusive coverage of the war. Maggie Brown watches from behind the scenes.
Planning for media coverage of the expected Gulf war is now at fever pitch. BBC and ITV news technicians are busy designing "virtual desert" battle arenas for news programmes. Television executives went to the Ministry of Defence last Friday to thrash out coverage. Under a system of rationed pooling, print and broadcasting correspondents will be invited to join the 30,000 British forces.
The Americans call it "embedding". The pragmatic MoD view is "better in than out". It would prefer to have British journalists on hand should it be accused by Iraq of misdirected bombs and civilian massacres.
Yet despite the high costs and risks, every news organisation worth its salt also wants exclusive eyewitness stuff from its independent, dedicated journalists. Why send star reporters to sit on ships with troops, then share their findings? So a balance has to be struck.
Jon Snow was whisked off to Baghdad on Thursday (although, to the frustration of the media, only 10-day visas issued via Amman, Jordan, are the norm) as Channel 4 pledged to cover the potential war "from every point of view and perspective" - including Muslim opposition.
At a launch party for ITV News, experienced ITN war correspondents speculated on where the best postings would be. Even as GMTV staff partied in celebration of its 10th anniversary, the talk was of how John Stapleton will be poised in Kuwait with a video phone and an armoured car (deemed vital for all independent operators) to follow the tanks in.
So, it won't be just the troops who are fighting - a fierce media battle is also in the making as highly competitive live rolling news channels compete to be first. And while the established channels have their reputations to keep up, News 24 sees it as a chance to prove its worth. CNN came of age globally in 1991 with Peter Arnett's eyewitness reports from Baghdad as the attack began. Sky News won the honours in Kosovo. The World Service's in-depth regional knowledge was displayed in Afghanistan: al-Jazeera is now a household name.
The availability of video phones and portable satellite dishes means that live broadcasts direct from the battlefield are widely expected, testing how much reality an audience can take. This time, too, if troops go deep into Iraq, beyond Baghdad, there may be a more prolonged ground war, creating refugees.
Like the soldiers, journalists and their crews are being offered anthrax inoculations, along with bullet-proof vests. Troops expect all journalists who accompany them to wear uniform for reasons of practicality and safety. No one is allowed to travel with the troops unless they have trained on special courses, to prepare for hostile environments and for exposure to chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons.
Part of the media planning is for fixed reporting from set locations. For television, this means sharing a satellite feed. For example, American forces will give daily briefings in Qatar, starting at 6 p.m. This is where cockpit videos and assessments of military action will be dispensed.
The naval base will be at Bahrain. Ground troops are massing at Kuwait, the obvious fast entry point to Baghdad by land. Then there are other flashpoints: Israel, Iran, Kurdistan, Turkey and Jordan. The World Service will switch the broadcast of many of its Arabic service programmes to Cairo.
Some TV crews may be protected by (armed) security advisers. "Broadcasters have made a 'quantum leap' and safety really is a top priority," says former ITV News chief Nigel Dacre. "You have to send experienced people, those who have worked in difficult foreign locations." Putting teams in the right places at the right time is a key strategic issue for news organisations. Everyone is poring over maps. And debating scenarios. There is an acceptance that accreditation with the military will be best for safety reasons and may even be more rewarding than in previous conflicts.
The Guardian's foreign editor, Edward Pilkington, says: "This could be the first ground war since Vietnam. Unless you are with the military, you may not get in deep, you could be two or three days behind." But invasions can happen very quickly: one ITN complaint is that troops in action won't stop to let journalists feed reports and pictures back. Martin Bell and Kate Adie, two high-profile BBC correspondents in the last Gulf war, were hindered by being tied to British forces. Afghanistan also produced a new "Lara Logan" breed of younger, glamorous war reporters, to the irritation of experienced hands.
Television newsrooms, forced to make snap decisions on what is transmitted, are also being prepared with detailed briefings, a reminder of how important it is to source information and the dangers of propaganda. And while the American journalistic tradition is respected, there is a belief that with so many people opposing war, British viewers want to hear from British journalists. - (Guardian Service)