In-depth foreign reporting is becoming a luxury that few TV news organisations can afford, so Sophie McNeill has taken the solo option.
Despite the many frustrations of trying to report in this part of the world, I love it here and think of myself as enormously lucky. I've spent nearly two years based in Beirut and have worked all over the region. As a video-journalist with SBS's Dateline program, I work alone with a small video camera, shooting and producing 15- to 25-minute pieces. I'm fortunate to get the chance to sink my teeth into some great stories.
"Palestine: Divided it Falls" was one of those stories. In mid-2007 Hamas had just taken over control of Gaza, kicking out the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority security forces. "Palestinian in-fighting dashes hopes of peace" was the headline, and that was about it. But there was a much deeper story behind this profound split in Palestinian politics that was not being covered.
Since Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections, Fatah officials had been secretly working with American and Israeli intelligence to claw back power and depose Hamas in a plan that involved weapons, training and money.
This attempt to intensify violent conflict between Fatah and Hamas was devastatingly successful, as both parties staged bloody and merciless attacks on each other. However, the plan backfired spectacularly - Hamas won total control of Gaza and gained its most powerful position yet.
I travelled to Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and Israel to chase the leads. Many of the people involved didn't want to talk and it took a lot of persuadingto get people on camera but, eventually, with the help of some great local fixers, we managed to piece it together. And last August, I was lucky enough to be chosen by the Walkley Foundation for the 2008 Young Australian Journalist of the Year award.
As part of the prize I was flown to London and New York, where I was hosted by the BBC and CNN, both sponsors of the award. The trip was an amazing opportunity to see first-hand the workings of these global news machines. In London I spent a day with BBC World, toured the new BBC Arabic channel, sat in on a BBC World Service radio planning session and attended a live recording of my favourite BBC current affairs program, Newsnight.
Highlights in New York included bumping into Annie Leibovitz and Christiane Amanpour in the CNN hallways, and meeting the Australian editor of The Wall Street Journal, Robert Thomson, who was another friendly host (at least until his secretary rushed in to say that "Rupert" was on the phone and I was quickly ushered out).
Since I won the award, many journalism students have asked me for advice on getting into similar work. It's a hard question to answer, because for young reporters passionate about quality, in-depth international current affairs, the opportunities are increasingly slim. ABC's Four Corners has a mainly domestic focus, Foreign Correspondent has had its budget and airtime decreased, and Nine's Sunday program is no more.
My story in Gaza took about a month to set up, five weeks on the ground to shoot, and hours and hours of investigation. Working as (relatively) cheap one-man-band operations, Dateline reporters can continue to do this kind of work overseas, but for most programs the investment of so much time in the field is beyond their means.
The drive to cut costs was also clearly a concern at CNN and the BBC.
Although improved technology is bringing us better pictures from around the world, cheaper and faster than ever before, it seems in-depth investigative foreign reporting has become an unaffordable luxury as budgets become increasingly tight.
As a result, reporters don't have the time to find out what a story is really about, or to do any meaningful digging. When a team of three or four goes on the road overseas, the budget might stretch only as far as a few days on the ground to shoot the story. So if you're flying in from London, Sydney or wherever, you don't really have the time to discover for yourself what's going on - you have to work out what the story is before you go (often relying on what other journalists have reported), set it all up in advance, follow the plan and get it done quickly.
The solution? I don't advocate turning every TV reporter into a videojournalist. It works for some stories but not for others. But I do believe this format is a great option for executive producers who want to continue to
provide quality foreign coverage and still break those investigative stories when the purse strings are tight. And who knows, it might even help some of these super-keen, tech-savvy young graduates get their foot in the door.
Back in Dubai, the consulate has called. Apparently my visa is finally ready and I'm supposed to go and pick up my passport. Now I just have to figure out how to get my flak jacket back from the Customs officials at the airport.
Sophie McNeill is a freelance video-journalist and was named the 2008 Young Australian Journalist of the Year.
