Life would be simple if all you had to deal with was re-building trust between communities that had recently been at war with each other, and monitoring the emergence of a democratic nation. That sort of stuff is easy isn’t it? But life is complicated. And the complications often arrive in a vehicle with the word Press on the side.
The OSCE Mission To Georgia press office is one of the most highly skilled media handling operations I have every encountered – and I’ve worked for ITN and Channel 4 television in the UK and the Discovery Channel in the US. To see Martha Freeman in action is to see a real professional who combines charm and efficiency with ruthless protection of the OSCE reputation.
But there is a gap between the press office in Tbilisi, and the need for confident handling of journalists in the field. The gap was filled in July when my company Media Mentor answered the call to come to Tbilisi and train Mission representatives in how to act when the media onslaught happens. We are based in Scotland. What do we know about the media in Georgia?
The international correspondent’s life is not unlike that of a politician’s. Wherever you go in the world, you’ll encounter other correspondents – all with the same drive, the same techniques, the same pressures, the same language. A journalist is the same the world over – trying to get at the facts, completely above authority, never to be trusted. Give them a camera crew and a large microphone to thrust in people’s faces and they become power mad.
Most people react by becoming defensive and obstructive. It’s one way to try and cope with journalistic demands, but likely to provoke rather than reduce an angry reaction. We needed to show relatively inexperienced operatives the techniques that will defuse the most belligerent journalist, giving them some useful information to publish, while enhancing the reputation of the OSCE.
In more than ten years of media training I have found out by experience that people learn by doing, not by listening. So we needed to get our trainees actively participating in a media operation, seeing for themselves how journalists operate. That needs a realistic incident. The men who handle all the transport and logistics of the OSCE Mission To Georgia stepped into the breach – and amazed us by their acting ability as they transformed themselves into outraged Georgians attacking OSCE representatives at border checkpoint and road accident incidents – all within the leafy surroundings of the OSCE grounds in Tbilisi.
Imagine a mini-riot breaking out round a checkpoint as residents who have crossed the border to do some shopping are refused permission to come back home, because the checkpoint is manned by people from a different ethnic group. Imagine the OSCE observer who arrives on the scene – closely followed by a TV crew demanding an instant comment, and ready to blame the OSCE observer for any trouble that occurs. You can’t run, you can’t hide. You must speak to the press.
Armed with Media Mentor’s techniques for handling such a situation – and repeating the mantra Regret, Reason and Remedy to themselves, our trainees turned out a polished performance. They stood confidently before the camera, smiled, gave a concise and clear report on the situation, and said absolutely nothing that would cause problems for their colleagues back in Tbilisi. They all remembered the golden rule of speaking to the press. The questions aren’t important – only the answers are. Does that mean that sometimes you can ignore the questions? Well don’t quote me – but yes, you can, and often you should.
My cameraman Simon Morton and I worked hard, recording more than thirty interviews in two days, but we still had energy to discover the delights of Tbilisi’s restaurants and cafés on pleasantly warm late June evenings – Irma Okroporidze and Tea Phukaradze made sure of that! As we descended through the drizzle into Heathrow, looking at the stationary traffic on the M4 we remembered Martha’s pledge to invite us back to Georgia. And we agreed we’d find any excuse to return, even if next time we are setting up our tripods in the conflict zone!
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