A Front Row Seat to History

Last week, we had the opportunity to join a live Zoom talk with Nic Robertson, the International Diplomatic Editor at CNN, whose career has spanned from the collapse of Cold-War Europe to the current battlefields of the Middle East. Over the course of an hour, Robertson spoke about how journalism is changing, how trust in the news is under pressure, and what it really means to report from the front lines.

A Career Spanning Over 30 years

Robertson joined CNN in around 1990, and over the past three decades his reporting has taken him from the Balkans and former Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and beyond. Early in his career, he worked as a producer during the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia, covering humanitarian crises and armed conflict in the region. He was also among the few Western television journalists in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. These experiences, he said, taught him that journalism is about understanding events, communicating their significance, and doing so under pressure.

Trust in a Rapid-Fire Media Environment

One of the major themes of the talk was trust. Robertson emphasised that trust has always been the foundation of credible journalism, but in today’s era of social media, breaking news and viral content, that foundation is being eroded. He explained how speed and volume mean there is less time for verification, and how once trust falters it is difficult to regain. He cited recent media mistakes (such as the BBC’s video controversy) to underline how even large institutions can lose credibility when they get things wrong.

The Cost of Reporting

Robertson travelled into some of the most dangerous parts of the world to report stories. He described the emotional difficulty of witnessing suffering - from civilians caught in conflict zones to women whose rights are being rolled back under authoritarian regimes. He discussed being in Afghanistan during the war on terror, in Libya covering the fall of Gaddafi, and in the former Yugoslavia where ethnic violence and displacement were rampant. He noted that being in those situations means grappling with the question of what your report can do. Can it spur action? Raise awareness? Encourage humanitarian responses? When asked about crises that receive little media attention, such as in Sudan, he talked about access, danger and logistics as major barriers. He also spoke of personal risk: being nearly stabbed in Sudan during one assignment in 2008, being expelled from or denied access in certain countries, and even being held hostage thrice because of his reporting.

Women’s Rights, Conflict & Media Attention

When asked about the worsening situation for women in Afghanistan, Robertson explained how difficult it can be to keep global attention on long-running crises. He commented on how the situation for women in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly under Taliban rule, and how international media attention has shifted elsewhere, meaning less pressure on governments and institutions to respond.

Reporting to Make a Difference

Robertson emphasised that his job gives him something unique: what he called a “front-row seat to history.” In his words, being in the thick of change means he has the opportunity to bring it to global attention. He said he hopes his reporting can help make visible what might otherwise be hidden: human suffering, diplomatic failures, evolving conflicts. By doing so, he argued, journalism can be a catalyst for accountability, for action by institutions like the United Nations or by governments, and for the stories of people who might otherwise be forgotten.

Tadea Del Pino. (Year 12)