How to Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone: The Essential Survival Guide for Dangerous Places

Начало книги

‘How do you cope with it all? Weren’t you terrified? What’s the one thing you always pack? What do you do about food and electricity? Who or what protects you in a place like that?’ Confronted with questions like these after each assignment in a conflict zone or amidst a humanitarian crisis, journalists, diplomats and relief workers face the dilemma of glossing over the truth, or trying to tell it but failing to do it justice. The answers either take quite a bit of rehearsal, or you just admit that some things are very difficult to convey to those who haven’t experienced them.

This book gives a vivid glimpse into the experiences and thought processes of war correspondents as they try to answer these questions, but it also goes much further. It punctures a number of myths that have existed around the work of war reporters; and for me, one of the most dangerous myths is that with each experience of working in a dangerous or even just plain difficult place, you somehow build up layers of immunity until, after many such experiences, you can consider yourself (I can’t stand the phrase) ‘an old hand’. If only it were true. The list of highly experienced, dedicated and professional reporters who have been killed on assignment is every bit as tragically long as the one of young, inexperienced and dedicated journalists who go to war zones in search of a break into foreign news reporting. For war correspondents, the next assignment is always the first assignment.

Читать дальше →