Journalist

Danger, this Virtual War is for Real

By Peter Moszynski

PETER MOSZYNSKI was on a course at Heckfield House, the RACAL training centre, near Reading, organised by the International Institute of News Safety and administered by Lionsgate Safety Ltd. There is an 80 per cent subsidy offered to NUJ freelances, court We were proceeding carefully to the site of the explosion, when suddenly there was a second almighty bang and I hurled myself to the ground.

Everyone else was standing, grinning sheepishly as the instructor laughed and said, "I guess you've done this before."

The whole thing was a training exercise in the pleasant Berkshire countryside, but it was close enough to reality to bring out my reflexes.

I was on an NUJ-supported course on News Risk Assessment in Hostile Environments. Nine journalists and camera operators were learning about explosions in civil disturbances; I was the only one with much experience of hostile environments.

After years working in Africa I have been in a fair share of wars, coups, civil disturbances, humanitarian emergencies, in addition to the regular difficulties posed by extreme climates and venomous critters.

I had an NUJ place on the course run by Centurion Risk Assessment Services, which specialises in training newsgatherers visiting high risk areas. This is a growth industry: insurance companies now demand that newsgatherers have training before they go to war, and the main news media and agencies provide it for their staff.

But freelances - and they use the work of a lot of freelances -could not until now get trained, unless they could afford thousands of pounds. Now the union has arranged cut price courses; this one was the pilot course.

It runs for four days and covers everything from battlefield first aid to PostTraumatic Stress Disorder, from vehicle security to minefields, ballistics and improvised explosive devices.

Some of the training was a little militaristic, involving weapons awareness, fields of fire, safe zones, dead ground etc, but some of these were among the most useful self-preservation techniques taught on the course, such as the need to get out of vehicles caught in shooting (due to their propensity to attract fire) and the size of the backblast from anti-tank weapons (30 metres in the case of the RPG7).

Out in the field there were set-piece scenarios where the trainees had to react to hostile situations. The immensely-useful first aid sessions were finally put to the test when we had to remove two supposed casualties from the edge of a minefield, an exercise that had us all on our toes as, struggling under the weight of flak jackets and ballistic helmets, we tried to combine the practicalities of situation assessment, mine-awareness, staunching simulated arterial bleeding, keeping the airway clear and improvising a makeshift stretcher to evacuate the unconscious victim from a decidedly hostile environment.

And then there was the hostage-taking, the most gruelling and unpleasant exercise we underwent. At least it proved the futility of failing to co-operate with armed thugs. If you're too troublesome you'll get a bullet in the leg, and if you can't walk you'll probably end up with a bullet in the head.

The course covers survival in extreme climatic conditions (Arctic, desert, jungle etc); civil disturbances and personal protective equipment (never wear nylon boots and synthetic clothing to somewhere there might be

rioting - leather and cotton offer much better protection against burns). Map reading and navigation were useful, such as reading landscapes and situations for clues to potential dangers.

It was demonstrated how easy it is for reporters and camera crews to resemble combatants, and the striking similarity between a TV camera and an anti-tank missile or range finder. We had quite a debate as to whether it was better to stand out as a noncombatant by wearing distinctive clothing and equipment, which would risk drawing sniper fire from troops who often deliberately target the press. As civilians comprise 90 per cent of casualties in modern warfare, it might be safer to be mistaken for a soldier.

But surprisingly, as someone with experience of hostile environments, I did find the exercise scary. The heightened awareness of danger has rather put me off visiting any more troublespots, at least in the near future.