Fri, 22 Jan 2010 9:26p.m.
By Mike McRoberts
Today’s our last report from Haiti, my cameraman Michael “Dutchie” Lacoste and I are heading to Santo Domingo early tomorrow morning to begin the long slog home.
It’s been one of the most challenging weeks of reporting I’ve ever experienced and as far as disasters go, it’s the worst I’ve ever seen.
What I still can’t comprehend nine days after the earthquake is how little progress has been made. In our last report we stumble across an orphanage in downtown Haiti. It’s normally home to 40 children, but 15 more joined them after the quake. I soon discovered that we are the first people to have visited them since the earthquake.
They have received no emergency relief, no water and no food. How can this be, how do you forget to check on an orphanage in the middle of the city.
Like the rest of Port au Prince they have no electricity or running water. The conditions some of the children are living are appalling.
Unfortunately, as I prepare to leave, my over-riding view of Haiti is shaped by some pretty distressing images. Corpses and body parts discarded on the footpath, shocking injuries that hadn’t been treated and the desperation of thousands struggling to survive.
I’ve only had limited access to the internet, as you can probably imagine, but saw some of the feedback to this blog. I hope you’ve found it interesting.
There was one bit of feedback I thought I might address, and it came from someone questioning why TV3 would send a reporter to Haiti when the big international networks are covering it.
I had a similar question posed this time last year when I covered the war on Gaza between the Israeli Defence Force and Hamas.
My answer then was the same as it is now. Of course we should send our own people to cover these huge international stories. We’re not British and we’re not American, and while we do run stories from both those countries in our news bulletins, essentially we’re different.
I remember for instance when I was in Kuwait covering the build up to the Iraq War. New Zealand’s stance on the war was quite different from that of coalition partners Britain and the US and so as a New Zealand reporter I asked the questions I knew New Zealanders would want answered.
Having a New Zealander reporter, and I’m not just talking about myself here, I believe makes international stories more accessible for our audience. At least that’s the feedback I’ve had from viewers over the years.
I also think these days with such easy access to satellite news channels and the internet there’s even more reason to be providing something different. If we sat back and ran what everyone else was running well then why would anyone bother watching?
It’s a real privilege to cover these major international stories, and something I never take for granted, and like anything - the more you do it, the better at it you get.
Thanks for your company.