Savaş Muhabirliği / War Reporting

1. SAVAŞ MUHABİRLİĞİ
YRD. DOÇ. DR.BORA
BAYRAKTAR

2. Bora Bayraktar(Ph.D.)
Journalist Academician
Born in Istanbul in 1973, full time journalist 1995-2016.
Earned his Ph.D. in 2013 with his work on Israeli-Palestinian
Peace Process.

3. Journalism
Background
•Started journalism in
1995 as a reporter at
international news desk
of a Turkish national
channel
•Closely covered the war
in Former Yugoslavia,
the conflict in Chechnya.
The Oslo Peace Process

4. Field Reporter
•Started as international
correspondent covering the
Middle East
•Covered Palestinian Second
Intifada, Israeli operations
•Civil war in Macedonia,
Israeli disengagement from
Gaza, Palestinian elections in
2006, Crisis in Kosovo as a
field reporter

5. Interviewed
leaders
•Specialized in Turkish
Foreign Policy and the
Middle East Affairs
•Interviewed Benazir
Bhutto, Ibrahim Rugova,
Said Jalili, Yasser Arafat,
Benjamin Netanyahu,
Ehud Barak, Shimon
Peres, Lech Walessa,
Nawaz Sharif, Tzipi Livni
and many Turkish
leaders

6. Iraq
 Covered Iraq war after
2003
 Focused on Kurdish
aspirations, the issue
of Kirkuk and
Turcomens.

7. Afghanistan-Pakistan
 Afghanistan and
Pakistan are other
crisis areas that I
followed.
 Been to Afghanistan
and joined a program
with NATO and US
State Department

8. Syria
 The civil war in Syria
 Did stories about
refugees
 In 2012 I have been to
Damascus two times,
did interviews, visited
refugee camps in
Turkey’s South

9. War Correspondents

10. Current Issues
 NO PROTECTION
 VERY LIMITED FINANCIAL
SUPPORT
 HANDLING PROPOGANDA
 VAGUE BATTLEFIELD AND
TERRORISM
 NEW TECHNOLOGIES

11. 1- Protection
 Reporting from war
zones has always been a
dicey proposition, but
the last few years of
covering conflicts have
become a particularly
dark and depressing time
for journalists in
conflicts.

12. Motivation and danger
 Reporters are told that they are
crazy to be there, but then get
rewarded.
 Reporting war is a way to make a
quick reputation or revive a fading
one. So they put themselves in
danger. Haberci haber olmaz
 Stories get more attention back
home when the reporters
themselves get hurt, or kidnapped,
or even killed.
 "Why you unshot.“

13. Journalists as targets
 In the former Yugoslavia,
Journalists were regarded as
the enemy, the cause of bad
news.
 Attempts at objectivity were
seen as a sign of hostility
and compassion at as
exploitation of the country’s
misery. As a result, war
correspondents were
targets simply because they
were war correspondents.

14. Journalist as expensive
targets
 Journalists are high value
targets since they make
headlines
 Especially for terrorist
organizations, they make easy
propaganda

15. Witnessing history
 There are rare moments where
you feel like you are privileged
to be witnessing history in front
of you.working press have
received almost no
protection, and
according to one report
have been deliberately
sent into harm's way (to
make the other side
look bad for killing
unarmed reporters.)

16. 2- Financial matters
 Most media outlets can't afford
full-time war correspondents, so
they rely on freelancers who
make less money and receive no
benefits like expense accounts,
security, or insurance.
 Because the pay is so poor,
those freelancers are forced to
take extra risks, like not hiring a
translator or staying in a cheaper
hotel.

17. Freelancers
 War reporting for journalists
who are backed by media
networks, remains
dangerous, even with the
support of security teams.
 But for freelancers who
arrive in conflict zones
without understanding how
perilous war zones are, the
danger only increases.

18. Fixers
 freelancers who do not have the
proper first-aid training or body
armor, who lack the experience
and language skills to safely
navigate conflict zones, and who
don’t have adequate health
insurance to cover emergency
care while in the region and
services once out.
 Advice for freelancers who want
to report from Syria is simple—
“Don’t go.”

19. 3- Propaganda
 How to handle propaganda
efforts in war journalism
 observer or (in)voluntary
participant
 that in most cases they choose
their side, push its agenda and
become as involved in the
outcome as any of the
belligerent parties.

20. Should we take sides
 it is naive of us ever to expect in
our society impartial, analytical
coverage of any war even those
in which there is no direct
national interest
 our only protection against
most war reporting is to
maintain a degree of scepticism
about anything we read and see
on TV.

21. Embedded Journalism
 Embedded journalism earned itself a bad name in Iraq
and Afghanistan. The image is no independent
correspondent and working under military mentors who
spoon-feed him or her absurdly optimistic information
about the course of the war.
 "Embedding" also puts limitations on location and
movement.
 This means that the correspondent embedded with the
American or British military units is liable to miss or
misinterpret crucial stages in the conflict.
 "embedding": it leads reporters to see the Iraqi and
Afghan conflicts primarily in military terms / human story

22. 4- Vague battle field and
terrorism
 Iraq war, a turning point,
who controls where
 No disciplined troops
 Insurgency against US
 Afghanistan

23. Health issues
 May journalists suffer from the
same kind of post-traumatic
stress disorder that soldiers
endure.
 Frances Harrison hid her
pregnancy from her bosses,
terrified it would spell the end
of her career as a foreign
correspondent.

24. 5- New Technology
 New technology means that anyone with a plane ticket
and a phone can be a freelancer.
 "War tourism" has become a real phenomenon in Syria.
 That means more competition for stories—and lower
wages—but also more reporters who don't really know
what they're doing. They take greater risks because they
don't know any better.

25. Twitter, youtube etc
 Competition with first hand
sources
 We have to fight against
disinformation
 We can give more insight
through social media
 Balance of social media and your
network.