The Rory Peck Awards 2001

Speech by Chris Cramer, President, CNN International Networks

18 October 2001

"The next few months are likely to bring the freelance cameraman back into the fore again. With very little access to the US or British military. Almost none with the Taliban. This could well be a conflict where the enterprisng intrepid freelancer will produce the only independent eyewitness view of the struggle inside Afghanistan."

"It is a particularly sad and frightening irony that 21 years ago Afghanistan was equally prominent on our TV screens as it is now - as the Russians invaded. Christmas 1979 if I recall.

It was that dirty little war which spawned a whole community of courageous freelance cameramen like Rory Peck. And others. Together with intrepid ITN correspondents like Sandy Gall, they grew their beards, put on their turbans and robes and put their lives on the line to get the pictures and the stories back to our television screens. Only, in those days male TV correspondents didn't wear Afghan ladies dresses!

Twenty-one years ago the majority of those freelance shooters travelled without even the most basic of back up from broadcasters. No guidance, no training, no insurance - and frequently no recognition when, and if, they got back. And not much financial support either.

We've come a little way since then. Through the Rory Peck Trust and those who contribute to it there's more tangible support for our freelance colleagues - though we still have a long way to go.

The next few months - since the tragic events of September 11 - promise to be a particularly testing time for all of us in the broadcast business. There's no textbook; no newsgathering A to Z for how we cover something as momentous as this. I would venture it's the biggest story any of us have covered in our lifetimes - if story is the appropriate word for it.

It will certainly be a testing time for those colleagues in the region. Indeed, It has been already. Many of them are taking appalling risks as I speak. Others, like the Rory Peck Trust joint finalists, Saira Shah and James Miller, have already taken great risk to lift the lid on life under the Taliban. What a prescient piece of reporting their film, 'Beneath the Veil', was.

It's a little depressing that it took the events of September 11 to remind much of the media - particularly here in the USA - of its public service responsibility and it's duty when it comes to covering the world. Before then, for years before then, we have been seeing a very disturbing trend of news organisations slashing back on international coverage. Closing their bureaux. Hiding behind the balance sheet whilst they focus only on national and local issues. And not particularly important ones at that.

Much of the US media has in fact short-changed its audience in explaining why they should give a damn about the outside world. Well, guess what? Now the audience does give a damn. Particularly in America.

And they are puzzled and they're angry that they were so ill informed and ill prepared for the attacks on New York and Washington by unknown terrorists.

The optimist in me thinks that the coverage of international affairs will now be uppermost in all of our minds for the foreseeable future. There's plenty of evidence that some networks and some newspapers are rethinking their strategy about overseas bureaux. And that plans to prune them back even further have been shelved - at least for the time being.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is pretty obvious. The war against terrorism, the war against the Taliban and Afghanistan and wherever else the allies strike, is not going to be like the Gulf War or the NATO bombing of Belgrade.

Our coverage, such as it is, is going to reply on our ingenuity and the courage of our colleagues. And the most compelling images - just like those shot from street level in New York last month - are more than likely to come from the humble freelance. Operating by himself or herself.

I'm always irritated by the habit many broadcasters have of labelling this stuff as "amateur video". We degrade the efforts of those who provide it. And there's certainly nothing amateur about most of it.

The next few months are likely to bring the freelance cameraman back into the fore again. With very little access to the US or British military. Almost none with the Taliban. This could well be a conflict where the enterprisng intrepid freelancer will produce the only independent eyewitness view of the struggle inside Afghanistan.

Major broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC will do all they can to support and sustain the work of the freelance. On this occasion and on others. We draw no distinction between our staff and freelances on location.

That's the most effective way, I think, of promoting eyewitness video journalism from this and other parts of the world. It's the least we can do."

• WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS

• Winners
• Finalists
• The Sony International Impact Award
• The Freelancers' Choice Award
• Broadcasts

• Programme
• From Sony, sponsor of the Rory Peck Awards
• From the Chairman
• The Trust in 2001
• Speech by Chris Cramer, CNN
• Judging Panels
• List of Entrants
• Acknowledgements

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