Shouldn't ITN Take Some Responsibility ?

I don't want to appear callous and uncaring and don't want to fall into the trap of blaming Terry Lloyd for his own death in 2003 but couldn't somebody at ITN have said no?

This is from the NUJ website on March 23 2003 and the last paragraph is absolutely staggering in its naivety, arrogance and apparent ignorance of war.

The killing of veteran ITN reporter Terry Lloyd is "a terrible tragedy that must be investigated", the NUJ said today.

The union sent its condolences to Terry Lloyd's family and his ITN colleagues. "He was a fine reporter who paid the price for his bravery," said National Broadcasting Organiser Paul McLaughlin. "The NUJ will give all the support it can to Terry Lloyd's family and colleagues.

The jeep carrying Terry Lloyd, an NUJ member, and his crew was attacked near Basra. Accounts tell of a confusing incident in which coalition forces apparently fired on Iraqi vehicles when the ITN vehicle was among them. The jeep was prominently labelled "TV".

Terry Lloyd was working independently in Iraq, and was not travelling with the troops as many reporters are.

Now the union is calling on the Ministry of Defence for an investigation into the incident. General Secretary Jeremy Dear is writing to Secretary of State Geoff Hoon to ask for an enquiry to be set up.

Paul McLaughlin said: "There are serious questions about his tragic affair. Given that the jeep in which they were travelling was clearly marked, why were they attacked? Reporters and camera crews know that covering wars is dangerous but they must not become targets.

"It is especially important in wars that independent reporters, who are not restricted to relaying official military information, should be able to work without unnecessary threat to their lives."

So there you have it, journalists should be able to work in war zones without getting shot at. Fair point but would the NUJ like to send its condolences to the families of the troops who have died because they were working in a war zone, or the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of wars?

At the inquest into his death at Oxford last week Lloyds former boss Ex-ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis said that Lloyd had apparently been caught in crossfire between Iraqi and US forces, and he added that "ITN couldn't force the military to tell us troop movements to pass on to our war correspondents."

Mr Purves told the court so little information was given about the incident that ITN had to send two of its own journalists into Basra to find out. He said: "I came to the conclusion that the British military knew more about what happened at the top level than they were disclosing to us." Mr Purvis also claimed the military did not "recognise" journalists not embedded with their troops.

The military did not wish to take responsibility for "unilaterals" - independent journalists - "to such an extent that in a sense they wouldn't even recognise their existence", he said.

"In my experience the British and the American military do not want unilateral teams operating full stop."

Well I'm sorry but is that surprising? Surely the last thing the coalition forces need in a war zone is journalists going off on their own without supervision or back-up.

Mr Purvis also told the court ITN told the military about their news teams' travel plans, but were not given any information about troop movements. He added: "They were not prepared to enter into a dialogue so I'm not sure what more could have been done. We couldn't force the military to tell us troop movements to pass on to our war correspondents."

Oxford coroner Andrew Walker said: "It seems that there needs to be some way of informing unilateral teams about where troops are going to be."

I know we expect our journalists to cover wars but I don't expect them to risk their lives when there is an alternative. You could argue that not being embedded gave Lloyd and his team the chance to view matters without being restricted to the 'official' lines of briefings, meetings and press conferences but this was and still is a war zone, not CCTV duty at the local Arndale Centre.

It was interesting watching the news on various channels last night. On ITV there was a real sense of anger, the opinion that 'one of ours had been killed' - wherease the BBC, Channel 5 and Sky carried more detached reports.

My personal opinion is that LLoyd was searching for the truth as all good journalists do, but that he ignored the circumstances. It's no good blaming the Americans they were acting within the rules of engagement.

Lloyd's family have my sympathy but instead of looking for retribution and recrimination perhaps his former employers could look at their own rules of engagement.