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Jean Riley
6 years ago
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1 Photograph: Vantage News

2 Terrorist calling Charlie Hebdo changed the landscape of terror reporting. As journalists operate at an increasingly frenetic pace, how are news organisations balancing public security and ethical concerns? WORDS: SOPHIE EASTAUGH AND ROBERT McCALLUM

He wanted to hang up but I told him to continue to talk. It was shocking that a terrorist would answer the phone Paris. The morning of Friday 9 January.

French journalist Igor Sahiri, who works for 24-hour news channel BFMTV, heard reports that the brothers had taken a hostage in a printing works in Dammartin-en-Goële, 19 miles northeast of Paris.

3 He wanted to hang up but I told him to continue to talk. It was shocking that a terrorist would answer the phone Paris. The morning of Friday 9 January. Two days after nine journalists, a maintenance worker and a bodyguard were shot dead at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the killers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, were still on the run. French journalist Igor Sahiri, who works for 24-hour news channel BFMTV, heard reports that the brothers had taken a hostage in a printing works in Dammartin-en-Goële, 19 miles northeast of Paris. In a bid to verify the information he called businesses in the area at around 9.30am, including the printing shop. The chain of events that followed blew open a media ethics debate that has raged in France and grabbed the attention of news executives around the world. Sahiri, speaking to XCity, recalls that fateful conversation. I asked: Who is on the phone? and he tells me it s Chérif Kouachi. I said his name loudly in order for my colleagues to hear and I just began to take notes, he says. The guy talked to me very quietly. It was really disturbing. He told me that he didn t kill anyone, he just said he was the defender of the Prophet Mohammed. He wanted to hang up but I told him to continue to talk. I didn t record the first minute but after that I went to the recording room and I talked to him for three minutes. It was shocking that a terrorist would answer the phone. Sahiri tried to focus and get the facts. He told me he was with his brother but that there weren t any hostages. I just wanted to do my job, to do an interview like any other interview. We called the police and the government straight after the call. It was the first time that this had happened. We don t have a strategy for it. Sahiri s extraordinary phone call poses a dilemma for journalists. What should a reporter do in this situation? Although Kouachi denied he had a hostage, print works owner Michel Catalano was in fact being held prisoner, while his employee Lilian Lepere hid under a sink, unknown to the killers. With the possibility that hostages were at the mercy of desperate gunmen, was it right to interview a murderous terrorist? The call could have interfered with or blocked delicate police negotiations. And what if any of this material should be broadcast? In doing his job, Sahiri found himself in a situation for which he had no protocol, raising pressing questions as to how to report responsibly on a breaking terror story. BFMTV would face yet another reporting dilemma later that same day. At 3pm, Amedy Coulibaly phoned the station s news desk from the Paris kosher supermarket where he had killed four people and where another 15 remained hidden or captive. Deputy news editor Alexis Delahousse picked up the call. He was very relaxed. I asked him how many people were there and he said there were four dead, as easily as if he was just telling me the time. Above all my thought was to remain calm so as not to provoke a reaction of annoyance, he says. For the second time that day, an extraordinary scoop had landed in the TV station s lap. We didn t ask for these interviews. But not wanting to provoke anger on their side, we weren t going to say, No sorry, we re not going to speak to you, and hang up. Delahousse and his team made some quick decisions. Though they were broadcasting live news from the supermarket, the channel decided not to Photo: French Police/AFP/Getty Images reveal they had spoken to the terrorists until the siege was over. Then they chose what to broadcast. He explains: We decided that it was important to give the elements that were really factual, the statements about belonging to Islamic State (IS) and al-qaida and the fact the two attacks were synchronised. Out of both calls, we broadcast about 20 seconds. We didn t broadcast anything that was a message of hate or that could in some way give them a humanity. While netting 23 million viewers, the channel s unparalleled access didn t pass without controversy. There are people who think that we sought to interview them. We ve always explained that we were slightly subjected to these calls, it wasn t an active process, says Delahousse. But that s not the only dispute. The wife of one of the six people hidden in the supermarket s cold storage room accused the station of endangering her husband s life by reporting live that hostages were in hiding. She claims that Coulibaly was watching BFMTV and would have killed them all had he seen it at that moment. The channel admits that one of its presenters reported one woman holed up in the fridge unit, but insist they had clearance from anti-terror police that the woman was no longer in danger a claim the police deny. BFMTV is currently under investigation by the French regulator CSA for its coverage that day. Brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi (L-R), who massacred 11 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices

After the Boston marathon bombings, police requested people not to report their positions on social media We all know the argument that publishing their comments only fuels their actions Photo:John

made it clear that with 24-hour news and the huge expansion of social media, processes for reporting responsibly on terror are more important than ever before.

4 After the Boston marathon bombings, police requested people not to report their positions on social media We all know the argument that publishing their comments only fuels their actions Photo:John Tumachi/AP Reporters outside the kosher supermarket where gunman Amedy Coulibaly called BFMTV Photo:PA Wire/Chen Xiaowei Whatever the truth of these claims, the unpredictability of the Paris attacks made it clear that with 24-hour news and the huge expansion of social media, processes for reporting responsibly on terror are more important than ever before. So what would British media organisations have done had a terrorist answered their phone call? Sky News producer Ross Cullen empathises with BFMTV. Calling round to find out which supermarket it is sounds like a job that would be done by a producer. There is no way you can get everyone in an organisation familiar with a set guideline of how to react if a terrorist picks up the phone, he says. I don t think it can be answered with a broad sweep. You have to be more specific about the exact situation. Many journalists agree they would have seized the opportunity to establish the facts. Harriet Alexander, foreign correspondent for The Telegraph, was one of the first British print journalists to arrive in Paris. She explains: If I managed to speak to Chérif Kouachi I would certainly have tried to get as much information as possible. We all know the argument that publishing their comments only fuels their actions, but I would have left it to my editors to make that decision. Sean O Neill, crime editor for The Times, agrees: I would say [getting the phone call is a] great story. Journalists should use all leads to gather information. You are speaking to people in the very thick of it. There is always a risk, but journalists have often talked to hostage takers. However, he admits that making snap decisions in hostile situations is different for print journalists to broadcasters, since they usually have longer to decide how to share graphic, disturbing or incendiary material. This breathing space is vital when considering what information should be shared with the public, and how. Tim Singleton, deputy editor at ITV News, explains: The key issue is not necessarily whether it s right to have the conversation. We might be the ones who are called by them. Our task is to get the information and report it to our audience it might turn out to be a crucial call which informs people of things they need to know. He emphasises: It s more about what is said, how much can be reported, and crucially, when it is broadcast. This may be the prerogative for news outlets, but Dick Mullender, a hostage negotiator for Scotland Yard for five years, raises a different concern. We are in a situation that is out of control and it makes it worse. My responsibility is to the >> 053

>> It s about covering the news, but not giving this tiny group of lunatics access to an incredible worldwide platform hostage, the journalists responsibility is to their newspaper, and the newspaper

The Paris attacks weren t the first time that the frenetic speed of live terror reporting posed serious security issues.

5 >> It s about covering the news, but not giving this tiny group of lunatics access to an incredible worldwide platform hostage, the journalists responsibility is to their newspaper, and the newspaper has to sell. Mullender feels that although journalists can be useful in acquiring information, they can also do more harm than good. The Paris attacks weren t the first time that the frenetic speed of live terror reporting posed serious security issues. After the Mumbai attacks of 2008, in which Pakistani terrorists set off a coordinated series of 12 bombs that killed 164 people, news coverage of the police siege was watched by the bombers. It allowed them to gain crucial information on police tactics, and is widely referred to as a police and media security blunder. With smartphones making everyone a citizen journalist, there are even more risks. During the manhunt after the Boston marathon bombings in April 2013, when two brothers planted two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line, killing three and injuring 264, the police had to request people not to reveal the location of their officers on Twitter. O Neill explains: You can cause incredible damage to national security. You are treading a very fine line without really knowing what the repercussions of what you say are going to be. On top of security, giving undue prominence to terrorists cause is a crucial concern for editors. Kerry Alexandra, user-generated content and social media producer for BBC News, says the sophisticated media content produced by IS has forced the BBC to revise its policies. It s been a constantly evolving line for the last few months. IS footage is a different animal. Showing wobbly camera phones of an explosion is totally different to putting out a produced video. She described the video of Jordanian pilot Muath al-kaseasbeh being burned alive while trapped in a cage as an impressive piece of editing. I was mildly horrified to see Fox News put it in full on their website. I couldn t believe that. The BBC s policy now is to show minimal stills from IS. It s about covering the news, but trying not to make a big circus out of it. Not giving this tiny group of lunatics, frankly, access to an incredible worldwide platform. Alexandra believes it is unlikely the BBC would have broadcast the calls with the French killers. But even stories of huge public interest court controversy when it comes to giving airtime to terrorists. When the BBC identified IS executioner Jihadi John as west-londoner Mohammed Emwazi, they received complaints from viewers that there was too much coverage of the story, accusing the corporation of glamorising his cause. Yet the fact that IS had created a masked social media protagonist with a London accent set the media up for this scoop what news organisation could resist revealing it? Terrorist groups like IS have certainly become more media savvy, agrees Sky News Ross Photograph: IS still Photo: ITV still The London-educated IS executioner Mohammed Emwazi, or Jihadi John A still from a mobile phone video sent to ITV of Michael Adebolajo soaked in Lee Rigby s blood Cullen, making editorial decisions far more complex. They know how to target the millennial generation. There is no editorial backing in [broadcasting] another video espousing their point of view. But of course, television cannot run without visuals. Cullen says that they must be creative to get the news to viewers. We will often run a small clip of audio with a still to get around it. This was Sky s approach following soldier Lee Rigby s murder on the streets of Woolwich in May ITV News showed a user-generated video of a bloodsoaked Michael Adebolajo wielding a butcher s cleaver. Cullen explains that Sky eventually decided to run heavily edited sections of it, since it was felt to be in the public interest to broadcast scenes of a UK attack. The role of user-generated content is increasing across all news organisations, but in the case of unexpected attacks, it is often the only source of images available. The reality is that intense competition for the best coverage means that some outlets take risks when covering terror. Cullen explains: You can jump through so many guidelines and be as safe as possible and there will always be another news organisation that has gone through one hoop fewer and thought: Let s take a risk on this one. With terrorists continually finding new ways to manipulate the media and news organisations on a constant drive to be first with the story, the ethical and security concerns of terror reporting can only get more difficult. As each attack presents fresh challenges for the media, journalists must be trained to react quickly and responsibly, evaluating on a case by case basis. The duty to report information must be balanced with the responsibility of care. But even with the best protocols in the world, terror situations can t be predicted. Even now, it is difficult for BFMTV s Igor Sahiri to come to terms with what happened. He says: We just want to get good, correct information, that s all. I talked to a man who killed colleagues. Even as a journalist, that s too much. We hope something like this never happens again.

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