<nettime> The Net as the best medium for war reporting.

[Carlos Pi <carlos@dircon.co.uk>]

Last week, I attended a panel discussion in London about the nature of war
reporting, chaired by Jon Snow of Channel 4. When asked by Anthony Borden,
Director of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (www.iwpr.net) about
the value of new media as a journalistic channel for war reporting versus
traditional media, he replied: 

"The effect of the Internet is, as yet, not wide-spread enough to have a
significant influence on the general public." 

Yet, while BBC reporters ventured a few miles inside Kosovo to video a KLA
soldier dying, IWPR was publishing reports from journalists all over
Republica Sprska whose names had to be withdrawn to avoid reprisals from
Milosevic's repression machine. Some of them were themselves victims of
ethnic cleansing; they witnessed (and suffered) the atrocities first-hand.
Their invaluable reports went straight from their laptops to the IWPR
website through London. 

IWPR has been publishing several weekly reports from the Caucasus since
October, and from the Balkans since February.

They recently won UK's Best Online Journalism Award ahead of the BBC,
online Guardian, etc. 

It seems the Internet, as yet, has not had a significant influence on Jon
Snow. 

Carlos Pi
Digital Artisan
_______________________
www.carlos.dircon.co.uk

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