Frontlines [antikvár]

FOREWORD THE FURTHER AWAY the disaster - goes the old newsroom adage - the bigger it has to be. A more elegant expression of this idea comes from a style note that Reuters issued to its correspondents in 1883, when it described the news that it considered suitable to include in the service of those Victorian days: 'Fires, explosions, floods, inundations, railway accidents, destructive storms, shipwrecks attended with loss of life, accidents to British and American war vessels and to mail steamers, street riots of a grave character, disturbances arising from strikes, duels between, and suicides of, persons of note, social or political, and murders of a sensational character.' News values may change but it will always be difficult to convey the reality of a country on one side of the world, without over-simplifying it, in a way that suits the taste of readers on the other. Foreign correspondents feel this keenly and they love to write in-depth pieces to put things in perspective. Indeed, they often write their best copy when they have leisure to study their subject properly, but by then the spotlight has often moved on. They may not be published. Reuters journalists suffer the same frustrations, although their position is a little different. They are not writing for a single publication. There is always somebody who is interested. Wherever the action is, Reuters is always there, lacking any particular prejudice as it follows events, and it is also true that such a consistent news agency presence can throw light on things that might otherwise escape the attention they deserve. It may indirectly assist freedom of expression where this is restricted. While Vaclav Havel was in opposition in the former Czechoslovakia, news about him from organizations like Reuters established his existence in the mind of a world readership and may have protected him from arrest. We know of other politicians who have been in jail or even on death row who feel that regular reporting helped prevent them being forgotten, or obliterated. In times of crisis we have a more direct impact because we report in real time, not to any particular deadline. We are among a few organizations that cause presidents to be woken up in the middle of the night. We may do more than ring alarm bells; leaders under pressure and their antagonists may be influenced by a dispassionate view. For example, we believe that Nasser drew heavily on Reuters during the 1956 Suez crisis. A correspondent who covered that story, Aleco Joannides, describes in these pages how the chief news editor sent him a briefing letter that emphasised how the objectivity of his despatches should be beyond criticism.