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It's
sometimes said that we can taste imminent danger. Once, when
Adrienne Clarkson (host from 1975-82) and her crew were on assignment
in Northern Ireland shooting footage out the window of rented car along
Falls Road in Belfast, they were abruptly surrounded by British soldiers
who mistakenly thought the camera was a weapon. Clarkson viscerally
remembers that moment, an electric tension in the air and a gang of
jumpy soldiers pointing guns at her head. "I had a kind of metallic
taste in my mouth," Clarkson recalls, "which I think is just
the body's reaction to total and utter fear." 
Hana Gartner felt that kind of fear not only for her own safety but for that of her baby. She was seven months pregnant when she found herself on the Akwesasne Reserve at a time when there were stories of armed Mohawk Warriors involved in cigarette smuggling and illegal gambling, terrorizing the community.
Gartner and the crew were shooting near their van when a car filled with Mohawks pulled up. A menacing Warrior told Gartner that she should pack up the cameras and leave. As Gartner boldly asked the man some questions, another car filled with Warriors arrived, then a third blocked the van from behind. "My instinct was, excuse me, I have every right to be here," Gartner says with a laugh. "Then I looked at my pregnant belly, looked up these guys, and realized I was really scared."
It's
not just the hosts who must deal with uncomfortable situations.
Longtime fifth estate camera operator John Griffin
points out that it's often the camera crew that's on the front line. "If
you see someone throwing a grenade or something like that, it's the
person taking the picture who's out there. Everyone else is behind him." Griffin
trusts that the crews are seen as non-combatants, providing them some
protection. He also thinks that camera operators like himself draw courage
from the fact that the camera is between them and the action.
Many times, however, subjects have become antagonistic, pointed a finger at the camera, and ordered it be turned off. "You have two choices," Griffin explains. "If we're filming so-called "bad guys," and we usually come with the knowledge of who the people are beforehand, it's important to let viewers see their anger and hear what they say, so you don't stop the camera. However, when it's an emotionally charged situation, above and beyond what people are used to, we would turn the camera off. The question is, are they trying to avoid answering questions, and telling us to shut off the camera is their way of getting out of it, or are we intruding too far into someone's privacy?"
