9/11 a turning point for journalists, court told
Claire Cozens, press and publishing correspondent 
Friday September 23 2005
The Guardian


September 11 2001 marked the turning point for journalists working in danger zones, lawyers for the former ABC News correspondent Richard Gizbert told an industrial tribunal today.

Patrick Green, the lawyer representing Mr Gizbert in his unfair dismissal case against ABC News, cited the deaths of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, BBC journalists Simon Cumbers, and Kate Peyton, the BBC producer shot dead in Mogadishu this year, as evidence of the huge risks faced by journalists today.

Mr Green said regardless of the precautions taken by news organisations, there was a "residual risk" to the journalists they sent to cover war zones.

Mr Gizbert claims he was dismissed from his job at ABC News because he refused to travel to war zones.

The journalist, who has worked in Chechnya, Bosnia and Rwanda, told ABC News in 2002 he no longer wanted to cover dangerous areas. The news network agreed to give him a freelance contract guaranteeing him 100 days work a year and giving him the freedom not to work in war zones. But in July 2004 it failed to renew his contract, citing budget cuts.

Mimi Gurbst, the vice president at ABC News in charge of news coverage, told the tribunal she had been ordered early last year to cut $10m from her $130m budget. She said this meant anyone who was not either "highly flexible" or "indispensable to a particular ABC show" was vulnerable.

But she insisted Mr Gizbert's refusal to travel to war zones had not been a major factor in her decision to terminate his contract.

"I would say that was, in a list, very low down if at all," Ms Gurbst said. "It was easier to deal differently with freelance employees."

The tribunal heard how Peter Jennings, the highly respected former presenter of Nightline, had described Mr Gizbert as a "star in the making".

In a letter to Mr Gizbert following his dismissal from ABC News, Mr Jennings wrote: "You are much more talented than most. I am glad we hired you and I am really sorry it didn't work out."

But Ms Gurbst said Mr Jennings had been consulted about the plans to dismiss certain correspondents. "Peter knew very well what we were going to do," she said.

Mr Gizbert's case has major implications for news organisations because he claims ABC was violating employment rights law by asking him to go to war zones, which he claims jeopardised his health and safety rights.

Martin Bell, the former BBC foreign correspondent, is acting as an expert witness for Mr Gizbert and is expected to give evidence to the tribunal next week. In his witness statement Mr Bell said the dangers facing journalists had escalated in recent years to the extent that while they used to get caught in the crossfire they were now caught in the cross-hairs.