From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Furor Over Hostage Drama
Reuters
11:15 a.m. Jun. 2, 2000 PDT
LONDON -- The camera never lies -- so they say.
But as the hostage-taker holding children in Luxembourg discovered on
Thursday, the people behind it may not be what they seem.
The armed man never knew what hit him when a police marksman shot him in the
head after he was lured into the open under the pretext of a television
interview.
Officials in Luxembourg openly credit the throng of reporters and camera
crews around the daycare center with helping them to plot their strategy --
which reportedly included a gun disguised as a camera bearing the logo of
local station RTL.
But the ruse has set off unease among many journalists about the media
masquerade that ended the hostage incident.
The general secretary of the Brussels-based International Federation of
Journalists, the world's largest organization of its kind, called the police
tactics "disturbing."
"Cameramen are always potential targets when filming in a dangerous situation
and incidents like this may put them even more at risk from trigger-happy
criminals or security forces who may suspect their motives," Aidan White told
Reuters.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, said the police
actions in Luxembourg had "troubling implications."
"We're concerned about this and we're looking into it," deputy director Joel
Simon said.
The managing director of Centurion Risk Assessment Services, a British
company that runs courses for journalists working in dangerous areas,
questioned why Luxembourg police did not shoot the hostage-taker when he
appeared at a window.
Paul Rees, a former Royal Marine like all of his trainers, said the surprise
element of the fake camera was now blown but that the hazards for the media
had increased as a result.
"If there are terrorists or would-be terrorists out there, they're not going
to trust journalists ever again," he said.
Police in Luxembourg declined to discuss whether a fake camera had been used,
citing "operational reasons." They said the hostage-taker had recovered
consciousness after an emergency operation.
RTL station manager Vic Reuter said police made a legal request for one
camera, three jackets and a company car but had refused to say what the
equipment would be used for.
"We have got the material back and there's no damage. I don't know if they
used our camera or they used another camera because there were rumors that
they had a specially prepared camera from Germany," he told Reuters.
"Stickers from RTL you find everywhere in Luxembourg. You don't need to call
us -- it's a giveaway for us."
Reuter said RTL was happy to have contributed to the end of the crisis but
was "aware of the ethical consequences."
Adrian van Klaveren, head of news gathering at the BBC in London, said the
media should not be co-opted into helping to resolve dangerous situations.
"We believe that there must be a clear separation at such incidents between
the activities of police and security forces and the work of journalists," he
said. "We will be putting forward our concerns to the appropriate
authorities."
Major Ivo Vereycken of the Belgian police Special Intervention Unit defended
the decision by his Luxembourg counterparts to have officers pose as
journalists.
"In this case, it was the right thing to do," he told BRTN television. "In
specific situations, we should be able to carry out this kind of operation."
But Rodney Pinder, head of television news at Reuters, said the police
tactics set a dangerous precedent.
"What do we have in future hostage situations -- the gunman looking out,
seeing TV cameras and not knowing what's a real camera or what's maybe a
police marksman," he said. "So why wouldn't he open fire on them, just in
case?"
--
This is not a "precedent" the police have pretended to be media on
several occasions I can recall.
Using the same logic one could argue that he wouldn't have done it in
the first place if he couldn't be sure the media he wanted to grandstand
in front of weren't the police.
Steve.
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