"You really think they can get photos from a war zone to pick and choose from for the same price as local shots, where there is no additional cost involved in travel, lodging, etc.?"
I am of course talking about the rate for the job - of course they will have to pay for the extras like travelling, but above that they will not pay more than their usual day rate - maybe even less due to the time involved.
"Maybe they can choose from a handful of photos off the wire. If they are that interested in having something different from everyone else's, they have no choice but to pay a premium, for it simply costs more to get those photos."
With the exception of a few big names, many organisations are sending junior people simply because of the expected (guaranteed) censorship of the material by the military. Everything we see will just be sanitised rubbish. Very few publications will use "something different" if it goes against that particular country's administration. There are already hundreds of wire photographers in Iraq - why are all the pictures so similar?
http://argument.independent.co.uk/co...p?story=381438
There was an estimated UN figure of 150,000 Iraqis killed in the last Gulf war, but I only remember seeing the one charred soldier in his tank on the road to Basra. The US simply do not want to show any kind of slaughter if it were to happen. Any other coverage of actual combat from the other side would be suicidal.
The world, more now than ever before needs "independent" journalists (photo/film/print) to be published in "independent" news outlets, but the dangers are often much too high for these independents.
Afghanistan is a prime case of heavily controlled news. How many reports/pictures did we see of the 15,000 Afghan civilians killed (I think it is called "collateral damage" in the US) during the "fight against terror"? How many bombed wedding parties did we not hear about?
It is strange how the US was in friendly negotiations with the Taleban (despite what the Taleban stood for) until 2001 for the right to put an oil pipe line feeding the Caspian oil fields. It is the Caspian oil reserves that hold such a lucrative interest for the U.S oil industry. The company that is most involved in the fight for control of the Caspian oil reserves is the U.S company Unocal.
Strange how when the negotiations broke down and the Taleban were removed by force that the new interim president Hamid Karzai, appointed by the U.S happens to be a former paid consultant for Unocal. Also Zalmay Khalizad Bush’s special envoy to Afghanistan is also a former Unocal employee and was a key member in the negotiations with the Taliban before 1998. Unsurprisingly the new Afghan government has pledged its support for an oil pipeline to be built through Afghanistan. Were the atrocious events on 11th September the cause of the attack on Afghanistan, or just a convenient excuse? Who knows, but it sure was not debated properly. There is a huge amount of information that is suppressed in what most would assume is a free debate.
As Journalists, it is our duty to report/photograph evenly what is going on in the world. But please take care - the dangers often come in equal measure from both sides of conflict.
Marcus Perkins
Linear Mode
