MEDIA & MILITARY
Many journalists want to aid a wider understanding of the Armed Forces
the frontlines, not least in the care of battlefield casualties, as public attention back at home focused more closely on the bloody realities of that war. That
relationship
between the military and the media has developed during every conflict, from the attempt to keep journalists as far away from the frontlines and the slaughter in the
analysis and reliable source information can often lag behind.
The role of the media Luckily, things have moved on since Lord Kitchener’s cry to war reporters in 1897: ‘Out of my way, you drunken swabs!’ Not only do most of today’s war reporters drink rather less (the campaign in Helmand is ‘dry’), but today’s commanders – more often than not – are well aware of the need to engage with the media, and equally aware of the benefits and the pitfalls of doing so, not least in counter-insurgency campaigns in which perceptions at home and on the ground are key. The modern relationship between the
military and the media really began in the Crimea, with the vivid reports sent back from the frontline from 1854 to 1856 by Irishman William Howard Russell, war correspondent for The Times, and Edwin Lawrence Godkin for the London Daily News. They helped tell the British public back at home how their Army was faring on the battlefields of a faraway foreign place, sending back eye-witness accounts and sometimes shocking reports of failures in leadership, the living conditions for the troops and the unsanitary treatment of the wounded. Their reports often found little favour
with most of the political or military leaders of the day, and much pressure was brought to bear on their editors to stem the flow of bad news. But their accounts did result in some improvements for those on
trenches of World War I, to the use of the national media – including the BBC – for propaganda purposes at home and abroad in a war of national survival during World War II.
The essence of most successful military campaigns is secrecy, but the essence of journalism is publicity
Media and the message In more recent times, the media has sometimes been blamed for failures, for example in Vietnam, and sometimes been welcomed as a way of getting messages across to all parties involved in a conflict, not least in interventions such as Bosnia, Kosovo or Sierra Leone. In today’s wars, whether journalists, military commanders and politicians like it or not, the media has become a part of the conflict, a battleground in itself, rather than simply an observer, however fiercely journalists may try to guard their independence when reporting at home or abroad. Embedding with the military – as in the
Falklands in 1982, the first Gulf War in 1991, Iraq in 2003, and Afghanistan most recently – is seen by many journalists as a necessary compromise in an age in which western and local journalists alike are also targets. Yet when reporting on your own nation’s military campaigns, it is the only way to see what those in the Armed Forces are experiencing first-hand, and to tell their stories. And for most journalists, time spent with Britain’s soldiers, sailors, Royal Marines
and the RAF on operations abroad only increases the sense that courage, discipline and a ‘can-do’ attitude define the men and women serving in the UK’s Armed Forces today.
Resilience and determination Those attributes were evident, too, when we filmed at Headley Court this May, ahead of the opening of the new swimming pool and gym, funded by public donations to the charity Help for Heroes. The resilience and determination shown by the wounded being treated at both Selly Oak hospital and Headley Court was mixed with the camaraderie and black humour that helps many in the military face even the darkest days. The injured wanted no sympathy, just practical help from the dedicated staff there in battling their way back to independence and their families and comrades, learning step by painful step how to walk again, and deal with lives that have been changed forever.
Wider understanding Some within the Armed Forces fear that the media coverage of recent campaigns has become too politicised, and risks portraying British servicemen and women as victims, rather than victors. Yet in telling the stories of individual soldiers, sailors and airmen and women on the frontlines and elsewhere, as well as those of their families, many journalists want above all to inform their viewers, listeners and readers, and perhaps aid a wider understanding of the experiences of members of the Armed Forces as they are sent to serve Queen and country. Max Hastings, in his book Going to
the Wars (Macmillan, 2000), says that ‘commanders of western armies have been obliged to acknowledge that soldiers in modern war want to know that their efforts and sacrifices are being reported at home. They need journalists to tell their story.’ We don’t always get it right, and
sometimes the temptation may be to shoot the messenger, but we do try to tell those stories – even if, as in Afghanistan, we don’t yet know how the story will end. •
90 SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
www.armedforcesday.org.uk
© Paul Francis and Jeff Overs
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