Chilling effect

Dear reader,

Two weeks ago, Friday, Oct 13, I was in the newsroom when we received the news that several journalists in the south of Lebanon had been hit by Israeli strikes, with one killed and several injured.

It took us some time to verify the identities of those who were injured and the person who had died. It took us even longer to release their names, as our policy is not to disclose their names until their employers do. Which means that they had time to warn their families.

We didn't want relatives to learn about their loved ones’ deaths and injuries from a push notification, after all.

A lot of people in the room knew Issam Abdallah, who was killed that day. Many people know at least one journalist injured.

For two hours or so, the newsroom was in a frenzy. We cried. We tried to keep cool. We tried to do our job. We gave hugs and comfort food to people who needed them.

Then we mourned.

And like most news agencies in the country, we put in place extra security measures to avoid a similar tragedy, which means we don't allow our journalists to get too close to the border’s daily shelling.

This has a chilling effect on the news. Some would say that’s exactly the intention of the perpetrators of these crimes. I’ve always believed in « innocent till proven guilty, » and it is very difficult to prove the intention to kill.

Whether the strike was intentional or a tragic mistake, the results are the same:

How do you cover the news when you can’t get close to the news ?

MJ Daoud, head of features, L’Orient Today