Events of the Day

Sitting here reading about Egypt and watching events unfold via the net I am reminded of another time,seemingly eons ago, when access was not so instantaneous and world news took a bit longer to reach the mainstream. Then was a time, when the roll of the photojournalist appeared somewhat more pivotal than it is today, with it's instant everything and it's citizen journalists. Then was a time, when photos told a concise and often cryptic story of events unfolding in some distant,or even local,corner of the world. Often times, the photographer had as much difficulty getting his or her images to the world, as they did capturing them and sometimes with as great a risk to life and limb. The wire services were a reasonably direct route, provided they were there, but still one had to get to the wire service offices, be they permanent, or temporarily set up in some hotel room or newspaper's offices. Unfortunately, in many cases, the photojournalist was faced with no existing services and the need to avoid getting caught trying to get film out of the area, while in others, the need was to get the film back to the nearest news centre, be that continents away of merely many miles to a major city.

Today, the need is only to find an internet connection and a moments peace and quiet with your laptop,but even that is not easily found at times. Beyond that however, is another problem,one of potentially greater risk and inconvenience. Today, mostly unlike before, the journalists are often finding themselves targeted by the very events they are trying to cover. More and more often they are finding themselves cast as the adversary,rather than the chronicler of events. Unlike an earlier time, when, for the most part, journalists were looked upon as non-combatants and left alone by the factions they were documenting, today they find themselves being singled out for potentially deadly attention. The digital age has brought with it, not only instant news, but instant recognition of who is saying, or documenting,what. Less and less often can one be in support of "A" at this checkpoint and "B" at another, as they work their way around a conflict zone. While further exacerbating issues, is the sometimes aggressive response to any and all journalists, regardless of their apparent published leanings towards any one side of a conflict. Witness, for example, the growing number of journalists being injured and in some cases, killed in the political struggle now unfolding in Egypt! The attitudes towards the press, are changing, both at home and abroad and the sanctity,if that is what it is, of that press is not only being questioned, but is often ignored by the participants in the events of the day,worldwide.