Veteran war correspondent regales lunch with tales from his career
WEARING HIS trademark white suit, war correspondent, author and former MP Martin Bell regaled The Yorkshire Post’s Literary Lunch with stories from his colourful career.
Some 65 people enjoyed a two-course lunch and heard from one of the country’s best known TV reporters. They then got the chance to ask questions and buy pre-release signed copies of his new book, War and The Death of News: Reflections of a Grade B Reporter, due for publication in June. Introduced by The Yorkshire Post’s Editor James Mitchinson, Mr Bell gave a witty and informative account of being under fire in conflicts from Belfast and Bosnia to Nigeria and El Salvador and even being injured himself and giving evidence at the War Crime Tribunal in the Hague.
However he told the audience at Harrogate’s Cairn Hotel that during his time with the BBC he often came into conflict with his bosses for wanting to show the true horror of war.
“If you censor the violence then you get a sanitised version of the world,” he said.
International reporting also changed with 9/11, he added, as journalists themselves became targets. “Journalists are rarely on the front line any more unless they are embedded with troops and that becomes a trade off between freedom and safety.”
He also talked about the rise of fake news. “How can we trust what we see in an era of fake news? Journalism is on a knife edge.”
Yesterday’s event was one of more than 500 The Yorkshire
Post literary lunches and was in partnership with Harrogate International Festival. Mr Mitchinson said: “It is fantastic to see the Literary Lunches back on the calendar.”