To wonder why so many journalists are crawling all over Haiti and yet aid can't get through?

[Rhubarb]

They said the airport is clogged up with traffic, I fecking hope they aren't letting journalists through in favour of bloody aid.

There were lads from the Lancashire Fire Service there last night, they couldn't land at the airport because of airport traffic, then they tried again and got turned back again. Yet all these journos are there, filming all over the place.

Someone tell me why that is!

On BBC site it says that aid is getting in. The problem is after that - they don;t have enough vehicles to transport the aid supplies, and the roads are blocked in many cases from rubble. There are aid groups and rescue teams in the country now, trying t get the aid to where it needs to go. Until the planes full of this aid can be unloaded and moved, that is whay others can't always land yet. But unil they have the vehicles they have no where for the supplies to go.

Sadly in a situation like this there is no quick way of getting the aid to everyone fast.

Just googled and there are reports of the airport being clogged up with media airplanes as well as those carrying aid.

What reports Rhubarb - can you link?

Longtalljosie - piss off. I used to work for the Red Cross so I do have an inkling of how these things work. Yes you'll have your journos who will have travelled overland, who don't get in the way. But many are actually clogging up the airport. Some are not heeding the requests to let the aid planes land first. some

But that's some too many.

We need reporting on the disaster, but when does it become too much?

I am entitled to ask these questions, if you don't like it then don't bother to reply, but don't EVER tell me to grow up just for daring to ask questions.

I can't help but notice in so many photos they look so incredibly angry. They must be thinking wtf are you doing filming us trying to get this girl out of rubble. Just sodding help us.

Why can the US not send aid by boat?

I did read that rhubarb, but not on any offical sites, only on blog type ones.

I do think, however your anger is aimed at the wrong people here.

"In many cases journalists go at the behest of aid organisations."

Yes, and often they hitch a lift with aid convoys, charitable groups etc.

Sorry - I am not a fan of many journalistic practices but I think this thread is totally misguided - criticising the press for trying to publicise the plight of the Haitians and raise charitable donations for their cause is completely off the mark, IMO.

TDWP - the port is completely unoperable so taking things in my sea is apparently not an option at this time.

Military planes have priority, bring in supplies and medical teams, etc.

The airport has no fuel so planes than landed who didnt have siffucient fuel to return are stuck there.

There are already dozens of humanitarian and aid planes at the airport. They are now so many they are parked on the grass and tarmac, making landing for others difficult. Those that do land need to have enough fuel to be able to leave almost straight away.

Sadly this kind of operation really does take time, a lot of time.

Yes Hulababy, my info is from blogs from people in Haiti.

Yes I'm angry, for those people and at being told to grow up for expressing an opinion.

I'm not anti-journalist. I write for a website myself now, I'm one of them fgs, but I'm realistic enough to know that many journalists will do whatever it takes to get their story, even if that means getting in the way.

And there's too much coverage atm, too much filming of human misery.

Would they film it in this way if it was the UK? Would they show dead bodies in the streets of London?

I just don't think the journalists are the ones at blame here.

It is devasting, it is awful.

I also don't like the type of images used. others will disagree though as they feel they are necessary to higlight the desperate plight of the people of the country.

But if it was int he UK - then yes, I do think we would have these images too. We would still have the harrowing films of bodies and the desperate stories of the people affected. I really don't think the location of he disaster makes a difference to how it would be reported. TBH if anything I suspect it may be even worse in that sense if over here, if it was a "local" story.

Journos trying to land at the airport

Don't forget though that the blogs are often used for peple to sound off, they don't necessarily have any evidence base. They are simply saying what they think it happening, and no doubt desperate to find something to blame rather than accepting that this aid just takes so long to arrive - and who can blame them for that.

Arg - but can you not see that your argument is totally arse about tit?

The plane landing problem is nothing to do with journalists.

The planes are stacked up because there is no-one to unload them and distribute the aid, and no lorries to take the aid on by road. So planes full of aid are sitting on the tarmac and preventing further planes full of aid from landing.

The presence or absence of one or two journalists on the flight has NOTHING to do with the logistical nightmare. Denying them a place on an aid flight wouldn't solve anything - it would just mean that Haiti's problems disappeared from the world view which would solve nothing.

I don't know about that Hulababy. I can't remember a time where I've ever had to turn the telly off so often before the watershed.

They seem to think it's ok to show a clip of soldiers getting shot in Saudi Arabia and badly injured children at teatime.

The more shocking, the better it seems. As though we won't donate as much unless the images are really gruesome and upsetting.

It's really not on.

Remember this is was a country that was almost entirely without an infrastructure before the quake hit so it's going to make distribution of aid doubly hard.

I tend to stick to Channel 4 news so am unaware of other sources' coverage but Sarah Smith stated that they accessed Haiti by road from the Dominican Republic. I understood that the issues with air freight were to do with air traffic control.

theyoungvisitor, no I can't see that. Because the news reports I've seen blatantly said that the airport was crammed full of airplanes. The blogs and reports from Haiti seem to confirm that.

Read the link. More journalists are trying to land there. Some are trying to hitch lifts yes, others have their own planes. All trying to land at this tiny airport.

that link has nothing to do with it though Rhubarb - that's about journos and aid workers stacking up in the Dominican republic because there aren't any flights to Haiti.

What has that got to do with problems the other end?

But I agree with the point about the images being too graphic, etc.

I do think they'd be the same in the Uk personally. I remeber the images shown after the tube bombings, the Hillsborough disaster, etc. Obviously none are to the same extent of this disaster in any way shape or form, but the harrowing images were all there, dying people, dead bodies, etc. Sadly the media do use these images to highlight their plight. I dn't like it. I ersonally don't feel that people need such shocking images in order to make them donate. But there are many, even on MN, that disagree.

theyoungvisitor, it shows that the journalists are trying to fly to Haiti, that many were not already stationed there, that many are not travelling overland. That if they had the opportunity they would fly their planes and land at that tiny airstrip just to get their story.

Yes, air traffic ocntrol is a big probelm. The control tower is inperable, US military have taken over, but obviously the equipment and radars, etc they;d normally use in the country itself are not available. Apparently this is making it impossible at night, so again - another stumbling blck is the fact that landings, etc have to take place during daylight hours.

"Because the news reports I've seen blatantly said that the airport was crammed full of airplanes. The blogs and reports from Haiti seem to confirm that."

Yes - the airport is crammed full of airplanes because the aid is stuck in the airport. That is everything to do with the lack of infrastrcture in Haiti and nothing to do with the presence or absence of a few journos on each flight.

Sorry, clearly we are never going to agree, I cannot see that publicity for the Haitian's desperate plight is anything but a good thing.

Again, we are not talking a handful of journalists, but teams of journalists and camera crews from all over the world, all descending on Haiti.

Just think about it for a moment.

I saw how bad it was when they were all congregating at Wootton Bassett. They have stacks of equipment with them and take up almost the entire town.

I'm imagining this to be far worse.

Hulababy and garry, you are right. This airport is tiny and they simply cannot cope with the amount of air traffic trying to land.

Not everyone is able to land timeously in Haiti when their airport is teeny and having to cope with such a disaster. They don't have the choice of huge international airports nearby with mega runways to divert to. They also don't have room on the ground for lots and lots of planes to sit on. It's a logistic nightmare and in terms of safety, there has to be limits on the amount of planes taking off and landing at any given time. I think it is safe to bet that ATC will be working their very arses off right now trying their best to maximise traffic whilst keeping within the realms of safety.

It would be impossible to say "oh, hold the plane carrying journalists whilst we land the one with the firemen", it just doesn't work like that. Besides, the one with the fireman could have journalists too and vice versa.

YABU.

Journalists are not stopping food supplies and aid getting through.

They are not the problem.

The absolute lack of infrastructure in the country is the problem.

It is a logistical nightmare over there and it will take time to implement, set up and staff an effective aid operation.

Until that operation is place, and it is very slowly starting to happen, then you need journalists from all over the world, to report back, whip up interest, dig out the human interest stories, give a voice to those that need it.

By doing so, journalists ensure that donations will continue to come in, pressure is maintained on those Govts that can help and the plight of those affected may be lessened.

I'm a journalist, and if I was there, I would be helping most by reporting the story to the best of my ability. We're not immune to what we see, you know. And believe me, it it wasn't on your TV screen or in your newspapers, then that really would be a problem for the aid agencies. There are disasters that happen that don't get this level of coverage and the aid agencies really struggle to provide enough help.

Sorry. I think there are too many out there atm. The story will be over-covered as usual. We'll get graphic images and yet people will want more. Newspapers will be competing with each other for the most shockng images to carry on their front pages.

I think the fine line has been crossed.

You cannot tell me that there are no plane loads of journos trying to land at Haiti, or that some of those planes blocking the strip do not belong to journalists. Because you know it wouldn't be true.

Not every journalist is like that and yes we need coverage. But it's gone too far now.

The sheer volumne of journalists out there/trying to get out there, logically they cannot be helping the aid agencies to get in and around Haiti.

That's all I have to say.