I have two friends and colleagues in the vicinity of Cairns North Queensland at the moment. Both Brian Cassey and Jake Nowakowski are fine photojournalists (in fact Jake’s photos are part of the intense coverage of the preparations for Yasi for the Australian Newspaper) You can see them here.
and I am of course worried for them.
I do have another friend, colleague and another fine photojournalist Laura El-Tantawy also currently flying into her birth city of Cairo.
These are two situations which are potentially deadly for anyone of my three mates who are photographing these events for whatever news organisations that employ them. They are all experienced, intelligent and level headed people who will not take undue risks, but in saying that, are in the hands of unpredictable circumstances.
So are they foolish or driven? Is there an essence of courage or just a simple ‘I am doing my job’ mentality?
The media coverage for both of these quite possibly cataclysmic affairs is saturated. Everyman and his dog it appears, can send poor quality images of the unfolding events into major news organisations and have their images shown world wide. This is now a common practice and much of what is received by the news organisations is unverified, poor quality and sometimes quite dubious.
And while the advances of technology can give us a more rounded view of real time disasters (look here at the enterprise of one resident of Cairns who has created a twitter page to report on the storm)
we rely on the veracity of journalistic professionalism to give an unbiased account of what is occurring around the world. Though it appears it is more and more difficult to pay the bills based on what we earn as photojournalists.
So at this point, when three of my friends are in very precarious situations I would wish News Limited all of the success in the world of bringing in a subscription based paywall for its publications. If it brings money back into the industry to train new entrants in news gathering and lift the level of professional journalism.
This would undoubtedly have an effect on such er, ‘presenters’ of news such as David Koch, better known as ‘Kochie’ who once famously pushed his way into an ambulance when attempting to ‘interview’ the newly rescued Beaconsfield miners. Whilst holding the title of co-host of the Seven Television Network ‘Sunrise’ one wonders what actual training he has had as a journalist.
Jumping into ambulances might appear to be de rigueur for the likes of Clark Kent but did ‘Kochie’ realise that Clark was a fictional character?
I guess we will soon find out. ‘Kochie’ is in Townsville covering the category five Cylcone Yasi and when that sucker hits there will definitely not be a hiding place. Even Superman has problems with Mother Nature…
To Brian, Jake and Laura, my thoughts are with you…. Stay safe and don’t forget to duck…
Lisa Hogben Photojournalist 
I love people making narky ill-informed comments. Just to clear up a couple of things;
. I was asked in to the ambulance by Beaconsfield miner Todd Russel. He had sent a message up with rescue workers for me to be at the gate when he came out. Mel and I had got to know his family. When in the ambulance he gave me his Miner’s tag as a thankyou for being so nice to his family. What was I meant to do… tell the bloke to get nicked when he asked me in.
. As for journalistic background. I started as a cadet on the Australian newspaper in the late 70s, then worked for BRW and came up with the idea for Personal Investment magazine (I was its founding editor). I was the youngest editor of any publication at Fairfax. I then launched Personal Investment magazines for Fairfax in the UK and NZ. Then I started my own financial trade publishing house (with Fairfax as a joint partner) which lasted 20 years.
During that time I would be finance contributor to radio and TV (finance editor at Seven for 20 years). By sheer fluke I was asked to fill in on Sunrise and stayed there.
Now pjhogger… what are your credentials. Let me know the expertise you have to make your comments.
Actually David I have been a photojournalist for twenty years working for TIME magazine and the New York Times and in fact I have done a bit of work for Palamedia in my time as well, where your bright and cheery face was often seen around the corridors.
I am glad to be informed of your journalistic background, as I only knew about your time as a publisher so I do stand corrected. And I am somewhat surprised you found my humble little blog.
As you say yourself, it was sheer fluke you ended up on Sunrise… In my small opinion I think I preferred you as a publisher.
Ok I have had a few comments about this using some fairly abusive language. Keep it polite, intelligent and well researched and it will be published regardless of your point of view. The forum for just mindless slagging someone off is not here ok…
Ahhh……….. if that’s who I think it is from channel seven he has serious competition from channel ten for the best Buster Keaton style news footage