DAVID COMMON:
Afghanistan diary, June 9, 2006
More from David Common
David Common is a National Reporter for CBC Television News.
Born in Winnipeg, Common started with CBC in 1998. Currently based in Toronto, with previous postings in Regina, Winnipeg, Fredericton and London (UK), Common has travelled extensively in the U.S., Europe and Asia, reporting from Washington, London, Haiti, India, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Common worked in Iraq for two months and also covered world events from such hot spots including; Haiti when President Aristide left, leading to major unrest; and London following the transit attacks in 2005. He has also repeatedly covered Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan since 2002.
Common's work won a Gemini award in the Best Reportage category for a set of stories he produced with Neil Macdonald in Haiti. His reporting work has also been nominated for a Gemini Award in the Best Reportage category.
Educated at York University in Toronto and Stockhom University in Sweden, Common lives in Toronto with his wife, daughter and their dog.
Combat, death not the only stories
So, is this a deathwatch? It sure seems so.
The journalist's role is to transmit a snapshot of events, along with the history and context, to viewers, listeners and readers back home. During a military conflict, that inevitably involves telling stories of injury and death.
This is my fourth trip to Afghanistan and on each one, I have spent some time with Canadian soldiers, either on their base or out in the field, and the rest among the local population. The two story lines need not be mutually exclusive and, in fact, most certainly are not. But, with the recent upsurge in violence, it has become increasingly dangerous and difficult to cover events in towns and villages without the protection afforded by travelling with the military.
It's also been more than 50 years since Canadians have had to deal with the death of a Canadian soldier in combat. Canadian media outlets are doing something we haven't done with deployed Canadian soldiers in a long, long time — staying with them on a long-term basis. You might think this would mean we would have more freedom to cover the soldier's movements off the base, but the opposite seems to be true.
Hamstrung by technology
The technology we need to broadcast back to Canada is on the base and is not particularly mobile. As a result, many journalists and their bosses fear that if you leave the base with Canadian soldiers on one of their many multi-day missions, and "big news" happens while you are away elsewhere, you are simply unable to cover it.
That big news, tragically, often means the death of a soldier. So, journalists in Afghanistan for Canada's bigger media outlets (print, television and radio) are reluctant to leave the base with the soldiers for anything more than a day trip.
Not surprisingly, many soldiers feel we journalists are conducting a deathwatch.
There is no question we, as journalists, must do better.
Canadian soldiers, whether you approve of it or not, are conducting a major military operation in another country. Journalists and their cameras have a mandate to show Canadians just what it is their army is doing here. It is tough work that Canadians are being roundly praised for by commanders from other nations.
So, where's the balance? That's the question we're all trying to answer. The solution, at least for our crew, here in Afghanistan for a month, is to do those one-day excursions when the military can accommodate us. But it is also to send one member of our small crew on the longer missions, when they come up. The remaining journalists stay on the base.
The answer is also to cover the many other things that go on here that aren't direct combat. After all, it may seem the biggest thing that happens here, but it's not the only thing. Canada's soldiers are doing a lot more. We'll tell you about it.
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