Watched Jeremy Bowen: On the Front Line last night. Brilliant account of his experiences as a war correspondent. He presented a well thought out essay on the fear, excitement and personal cost of war reporting.
Bowen’s first war was El Salvador in 1989. He describes the exhilaration and terror of seeing war for the first time. He reveals his apprehension at seeing a dead body and the ‘powerful drug’ of reporting from the front.
He cleverly interspersed his own story of warzone journalism with interviews with other war reporters, colleagues and cameramen. Fergal Keane described his experiences in Rwanda and Allan Little and Martin Bell talked about the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Bowen reviewed his career, through El Salvador, Bosnia, Sarajevo, and Mostar to Beirut and Lebanon. I remember his reports from the Balkans and the Middle East and have always liked his direct, engaging style.
The programme was intelligently presented and examined a number of important questions about war correspondents and how objectivity can soon get lost in the heat of battle. In a world of staged press conferences with grainy footage of precision weapons always hitting their mark, Bowen is spot on to emphasise the importance of independent eye-witness accounts. Without the war reporter how are we to understand what’s really happening on the ground ?
He also devoted time to the personal toll war reporting takes on journalists and cameramen. After a bout under fire, normal life seems very tame indeed. He was candid about his time away from the front line and how it seemed unimportant and dull. This can result in psychological torment, addiction, marriage break ups and even suicide. Journalists are exposed to extreme situations of life and death, horror and exhilaration. They see misery and killing and have to report and comment on it daily. After that, normal life seems monotonous, empty and frustrating.
He was very good on the role of war reporters and what they actually do. They search for stories among the rubble, shelling and gunfire. They select facts and images to illustrate the events and tragedies of war to show what killing does to people. War is about death, and death is a terrible human story. Bowen meditated aloud about how reporting wars is intrusive. “You enter people’s lives at their worst moments. A good day for us is always the worst day or the last day for them“. He’s right. The journalist flies in, comments on personal tragedy and death and flies out again. It’s a terrible intrusion which must play on their consciences. But, as he says, “reporting the truth is essential“.
He concluded by describing his experiences reporting on the war in Lebanon and the Israeli withdrawal. Tragically, his Lebanese driver and friend, Abed Takoush, was killed by an Israeli tank shell on the border. I remember the report at the time. Jeremy Bowen was giving a piece to camera when Abed’s car received a direct hit from an Israeli tank shell. He must have died instantly. It was harrowing to watch, and must have been truly terrible to witness. No doubt some sort of turning point in Bowen’s life. People die in war and death can be cruelly indiscriminate. Be it a tank shell in war torn Lebanon, a teenage drug addict with an AK47 in Congo, merciless Serb shelling or El Salvadorian rebels on a killing spree. War is a monstrous meat grinder which devours the young and the innocent.
Jeremy Bowen is a great journalist and a thoughtful war reporter. We are lucky to have him and his experience on our screens. In the age of ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ independent war reporting is as important as ever.
Must say, I like Honda’s new Power of Dreams ad. campaign.
Just love the new ‘Berliner’ 
On Monday morning the New York Post splashed an exclusive frontpage scoop, ‘Kerry’s Choice - Dem picks Gephardt as VP candidate’.