No telephone, no bank cards, simply $12k money to cross the border to report on genocide


On Friday 25 October we will probably be internet hosting a , listening to from Dateline reporters, producers and editors previous and current who’ve witnessed to a few of the world’s most extraordinary and pivotal moments in latest historical past.
While you flip 40 you are inclined to look again in your life and replicate, ‘how did I get right here? Have I made the correct selections? What’s subsequent?’
As Australia’s longest-running worldwide affairs program, there’s so much within the archive to look again and replicate on.
This system started in 1984 as an hour-long studio present hosted by Paul Murphy, that includes professional interviews. However earlier than lengthy Paul hit the street together with a crew of reporters to cowl little recognized tales from remote locations and the large worldwide points.
A type of massive world tales was the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, 1994.

It resulted from many years of tribal resentment and was exacerbated by colonialism and post-colonial energy struggles.

Helen Vatsikopoulos in a light blue shirt points towards a hospital building

It is now recognized that almost one million individuals died within the Rwandan genocide twenty years in the past, however when Dateline despatched reporter Helen Vatsikopoulos to cowl the story in 1994, the nation was in chaos.

Reporter was deployed to cowl the brutal violence and the aftermath, successful Dateline’s first Walkley Award.

The method to reporting was fairly completely different again then — Helen and cameraman Simon Tobin had no cellphones, and SBS on the time didn’t have a satellite tv for pc telephone. Nor did they’ve an organization bank card — simply US$12,000, carried into the nation on Helen’s physique.
There have been few plans on the place they might go or who they might interview.
The crew winged it, discovering a automobile in Uganda and driving throughout the border into Rwanda.
They got here again with some astounding photos that bore witness to historical past, and tales that will perpetually stick with them.

Tales like that take a toll.

Thumbnail of A New Sheriff In Town

Dateline and Dr Vatsikopolous are collaborating in commemorations of the thirtieth anniversary of the genocide
In 1999 grew to become this system’s govt producer, having first labored as a reporter on the present. In 1989, he and the Dateline crew grew to become the primary TV crew to be allowed into Myanmar, then often known as Burma, in three many years. They secured the primary TV interview with pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi earlier than she was positioned beneath home arrest that 12 months.
 Aung San Suu Kyi with dark hair and pink lipstick

Mike Carey and the Dateline crew secured the primary TV interview with Aung San Suu Kyi who spoke about her political ambitions and drive for higher human rights.

As govt producer, Carey established a video journalism mannequin that got here to outline Dateline for the following 15 years.

A VJ is a Video Journalist — one one who goes on solo deployment to get the story.
It’s so much for one individual to handle – they’re the reporter, the digital camera operator, the sound recordist and producer.

Throughout this period, agile, globetrotting VJs delivered a raft of groundbreaking and award-winning tales.

A hooded man with his arms outstretched

The pictures of abuse from Abu Ghraib jail induced worldwide outrage in 2004, with the picture of the hooded man together with his arms outstretched changing into an enduring image of America’s involvement within the Iraq Struggle.

In 2000, Mark Davis gained a Gold Walkley reporting on Indonesian militias in East Timor (now Timor-Leste) and the way they have been funded.

In 2006, introduced Dateline a world unique with a second batch of pictures of Abu Ghraib jail abuse, which shocked the world.
And naturally George Negus – a media legend – introduced his gravitas and professional interview expertise to the present as host between 2005 – 2010.
The 2024 season is now over and it’s been certainly one of our largest shortly.
We discovered , after his household left Australia to stay beneath the self-proclaimed Islamic State group.
We despatched the primary journalists to.
We bought entry to far-right ‘constitutional sheriffs’ in Arizona, youngsters of the mafia in Calabria, and

We even took a experience on Mexico’s deadliest prepare alongside a whole lot of migrants hoping to achieve the US border and begin new lives.

Thumbnail of The Beast: Mexico's Deadliest Train

The Beast: Mexico’s Deadliest Train

When Negus was awarded a Walkley Award for excellent contribution to journalism in 2022 he commented on why we inform these worldwide tales and who it’s all for.

He stated he wished to take the viewers with him on a journey, and added, “plenty of journalists neglect that it’s not about us. With out the viewers watching — no program, no pay packet, we don’t have a job until individuals are watching.”

Dateline staff in two rows smiling into camera

Present Dateline employees at fortieth anniversary celebrations together with Govt producer Georgina Davies, (entrance left).

At Dateline in 2024 we proceed to maintain his phrases on the centre of our storytelling.

It’s all for the viewers.
Dateline will probably be again in 2025 with a brand-new season.



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