REPORTING FROM A WAR

By Tathagata Ghosh, New Jersey

Thewar in Ukraine brought to fore the importance of accurate reporting. Without accurate reporting, sometimes it is difficult to know who the aggressor was and who the victim was. Relief and aid does not reach when the world is unaware or indifferent to what is happening in a conflict zone. When Russia decided to attack Ukraine, that part of the world was probably farthest from the minds of most new organizations. Then within a few days, most of the western news organizations had a presence in Ukraine. Most of them landed up in the western part of Ukraine that was relatively peaceful with less chance of conflict.

I had watched a Netflix series from the second world war of actual video and photographs and it was evident that it would be close to impossible to know the truth unless there were reporters and eyewitness and cameras recording what was happening. Again it would be naïve to think that the army that embedded the reporters would let all footage through without censoring. Initially the reason that war correspondents were allowed in was probably the government could use the footage as propaganda. It sometimes worked but in many cases like in Vietnam, the excesses of the army was also captured and also helped to turn public opinion against the war.

Every country has their own new organizations biased towards to the political institutions in power. They normally have a slanted view of the war and the truth hence it is of utmost importance to have an independent press. Most dictatorial regimes suppress and independent press.

I have noticed a lot of antipathy against the so-called western media when they cover these wars. That may be so, but you certainly don’t find any reporters from non-western countries even when they have their citizens there. Case in point was when a large number of foreign students including Indians were trapped in Ukraine but there was no Indian press there to listen to them. The only eyes and ears was the much maligned western media. The Indian press was mostly reacting to Western press reports. On the other hand, Al-Jazeera is still reporting on Ukraine. Their focus may be more as a third party observer and hence may be more accurate that Western reporting.

The native reporters in Ukraine turned into wartime correspond- ents just because they were on site. Some of them in the more sensitive parts of Ukraine were only the native reporters remained and they contracted with other news agencies to provide them news from Ukraine. As in other wars, the news agencies of the opposing side are targeted so as to cut off the people from the news. Russia did target the news infrastructure but fortunately Ukraine was able to rebuild quickly. Also the internet infrastructure was boosted by the use of Elon Musk operated Starlink (a satellite based system)so the local internet connectivity remained for the besieged people.

The Russian news agencies are muzzled for the most part. Except for a few pockets of resistance or reporters who fled Russia, there was no proper account of the war beyond the the official version. So the Russian view of the war is mostly controlled by their state media and hence the Russian people will never know the truth about the war.

It has to be emphasized that reporting from war zones is one of the most difficult assignments for a reporter and many reporters have died and been wounded in pursuit of a story. That is why only the most seasoned and hardened new organizations even attempt to cover a war

Two regions that suffered from a lack of reporting as well as disinterest recently was Aleppo in Syria where the Syrian Government and the Russian army annihilated the opposition held Aleppo. There was just limited reporting from Aleppo and the cruel bombardment continued with very little assistance to the locals and the civilians. The Syrian refugees streamed into Europe and are still in many places. Similar brutality happened in Chechnya by Russia. A small country of only about 1.5 million people were bombed and destroyed into submission. There was almost no coverage of Chechnya and Putin could have his way with this small country.

During this conflict with Ukraine, a few of my schoolmates, started to post the Russian state version of the events in Ukraine through www.rt.com. It was shocking because other than a handful of people including myself, nobody pushed back at the justification of genocide and war crimes. That is one of the basic reasons why proper reporting is required. Else the devil will get their way and nobody will be the wiser.