Needless to say, this trope can be Truth in Television for any journalist who places themselves at risk trying to report on anything dangerous while it's still happening. This is especially true for war correspondents working in areas of active military conflict, where they can be accidentally or intentionally attacked by armed forces.
- On the morning of December 6, 1917, a French munitions ship loaded with explosives collided with another ship and caught fire in the Narrows Strait just off Halifax, Nova Scotia
. At the railyard near Pier 6 where the burning ship drifted in, dispatcher Vince Coleman and a coworker were told what was happening and ran for their lives — only for Coleman to turn back when he remembered a passenger train was about to come in. He ran back to the station and sent out one telegraph message after another warning the train to stop. Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye, boys. Minutes later the ship exploded, killing 2000 people, including Coleman; it was the largest man-made explosion in recorded history prior to the atomic bomb. But his messages were received by other stations down the line, letting officials respond. All incoming trains stopped in time, saving numerous lives. His heroism was widely remembered, including in one of the highest honours Canadian society can bestow: a Heritage Minute that nobody makes jokes about. - On September 8, 1934, the luxury liner SS Morro Castle caught fire near Long Beach Island, NJ. Radio broke the news first and covered the events throughout the day. The Coast Guard cutter USCGC Tampa tried to tow her, but in rough waters, the tow line snapped and the smouldering hulk drifted in toward shore at Asbury Park. WCAP's Tom Burley had been just about to pause for a station break; he said "The Morro Castle is adrift and heading for the shore—" looked up, and cried out "My God! She's coming right in here!" She struck ground about a hundred yards from the broadcast booth.
- Reporter Herb Morrison's eyewitness account of The Hindenburg explosion May 6, 1937, is as memorable as the event itself (his famous exclamation of "Oh, the humanity!" has been homaged and parodied countless timesnote ). It was the inspiration for countless dramatic portrayals of badass broadcasters engaging in similar heroics. (Morrison wasn't injured in the explosion, continued covering the rescue efforts, and died in 1989.)
- British offshore pirate radio stations had this happen to them fairly often, between rough seas and the frequently rather dilapidated state of the ships. This 1971 recording from Radio North Sea International is a particularly memorable example.
- The May 17, 1974 shootout between Los Angeles police and the Symbionese Liberation Army (which had become notorious nationally for kidnapping Hearst newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, who later joined her captors) resulted in several local reporters experiencing close calls; including KABC-TV reporter Christine Lund, knocking on a door of a building once used as an SLA hideout when shots were fired nearby and another KABC crew having a bullet whiz by them.
- On July 15, 1974, chronically depressed Sarasota, Florida anchorwoman Christine Chubbuck shot herself in the head during a live News Broadcast. She was rushed to the hospital and died soon afterwards. (Eerily, she had pre-written a news report about the incident that she wanted her colleagues to read on the air, and correctly guessed both the hospital that she would be brought to and the fact that she wouldn't die immediately.)"In keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, an exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide."
- On August 1st, 1977, a news helicopter piloted by Francis Gary Powers (yes, the same one from the U2 incident) crashed in Encino, killing him and the KNBC news cameraman he was carrying as a passenger.
- Among the dead in the November 18, 1978 Port Kaituna Airstrip Murders, perpetrated by followers of Jim Jones just before his group's mass suicide, were an NBC reporter and camera operator. They were along with U.S Congressman Leo Ryan to document his attempt to bring back cult members who did not want to remain in Jonestown and to investigate the compound.
- During the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption, KOMO news reporter Dave Crockett was caught in the ash cloud but survived. USGS surveyor David Johnston, the first person to report the eruption, was not so lucky, being swept away by pyroclastic flow just after his transmission: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!". Reid Blackburn, a photographer for The Columbian newspaper, was also killed in the act.
- In 1982, the anchors of KOOL-TV (now KSAZ-TV) in Phoenix were held at gunpoint by a man who wanted "to prevent World War III". After holding them hostage for several hours, he then forced them to interrupt programming around 9:30 PM to make anchor Bill Close read a statement by him for about 20 minutes with a gun pointed at his belly the entire time. It included such gems as instructing Johnny Cash to tell Queen Elizabeth II to evacuate London before it was nuked by Argentinanote , that Ronald Reagan's son Ricky (who doesn't exist by the way; his sons are named Micheal and Ron) was being brainwashed by Islam, that Islam is responsible for hippies and Punk Rock, and that Phoenix would be invaded by an army of ants. You can watch the entire thing here. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
- Reporter, actress, comedian and punk rockernote Jane Dornacker was doing a traffic report for WNBC (now WFAN) radio in New York in 1986 when the helicopter developed a mechanical problem. She told the pilot — live on the air — to "hit the water, hit the water, hit the water!" The chopper then crashed into the Hudson River, killing her and severely injuring the pilot. It's believed that her last words were the result of her surviving a helicopter crash in the Hackensack River six months prior and thinking that a water crash would be survivable. This aircheck from the next day is devoted to tributes to her.
- And years after NBC sold off their radio stations, WNBC-TV has had two helicopters crash. The first time was in 1998- their brand new chopper, which they had been promoting the hell out of, crashed into the Passaic River. That forced them to bring the old helicopter back into service. That one then crashed in 2004 onto a rooftop in Brooklyn- rival WABC managed to capture that with their own chopper. Thankfully, no one got killed in either of those incidents.
- And years after NBC sold off their radio stations, WNBC-TV has had two helicopters crash. The first time was in 1998- their brand new chopper, which they had been promoting the hell out of
- In 1987, KNBC-TV consumer reporter David Horowitz was held hostage during a live newscast by a gunman with mental problems, who forced him to read his manifesto about the CIA, clones and UFOS, though the station had suspended the broadcast. The hostage-taker's weapon turned out to be an empty BB gun. Following the incident, Horowitz lead a campaign to ban realistic toy guns in California and other states.
- CNN's coverage of the massive 1989 Chinese student rebellion was this, especially when Chinese authorities came to the bureau and ordered them to stop transmitting. They kept right on sending until the cameras were turned off. This coverage influences the world's view of China to this day. Twenty years later, Chinese officials blocked CNN from carrying a memorial gathering.
- ABC's Al Michaels, during Game 3 of the 1989 World Series at San Francisco's Candlestick Park just as the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area: "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth-"
- Another well-known pirate radio example is from August 19, 1989, when Radio Caroline was boarded and forced off the air by British and Dutch authorities while broadcasting. Although they were nice enough to let the DJs explain what was going on before shutting off their transmitter, with one of the DJs even asking if they wanted to play anything right as they went off-air.
- At least two journalists died and five others were wounded during the Romanian Revolution of 1989. The most famous case were the Belgian Danny Huwe and the French Jean-Louis Calderon, both shot dead as they covered the facts (with Huwe even having the horrible luck of being shot down because he was mistaken as a Ceaucescu supporter).
- CNN reporters Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett were in a hotel in downtown Baghdad on January 19, 1991, when coalition forces, led by the United States, began bombing the city. CNN, the only network able to broadcast from there at the time, abruptly put the three men on the air live with no TV feed, and their dramatic radio-like reports vaulted CNN to the forefront of modern television news reporting.Anchor: We're going to Bernard Shaw in Baghdad.(no picture; sound of exploding bombs in the background)Bernard Shaw (out of breath): This is, uh.... something is happening outside!
- In 1992, while covering the war in Bosnia, BBC reporter Martin Bell was seriously wounded by shrapnel while recording a report in Sarajevo. This obviously did no harm to his reputation for courage and integrity, which later helped him get elected to Parliament for one term as an independent.
- Japanese television station ABC (not affiliated with the American or Australian broadcasting companies) in Osaka became witness to the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995 when the quake struck just mere moments after the station had started broadcasting their morning program. The situation could’ve been a lot worse though, as during the time, ABC was well known for broadcasting their morning programs atop a broadcasting tower next to the station’s head office. It just so happens that the morning program was beamed from one of the studios in said head office for that day because the elevators in the tower were undergoing maintenance. Had the morning program been broadcasted from the tower instead, it likely would have resulted in the hosts and crew being trapped atop the tower, or something far worse.
- Juan Guerra and Jorge Viera, reporters for the Spanish language TV station Telemundo, were caught in the crossfire of the 1997 North Hollywood bank shootout, some rounds missing them by less than two feet.
- On August 11, 1999, every news studio and reporter in Salt Lake City had front row seats to a tornado sweeping through the downtown core.
- In a news report during the September 11, 2001 attacks, reporter N.J. Burkett of WABC standing a few blocks from 7 World Trade Center was reporting that the fire department had cleared out of the building, fearing that its collapse was imminent... during this report, the building indeed collapsed, and the reporter found himself running from a cloud of smoke and debris.Burkett: WE BETTER GET OUT OF THE WAY!
- Also on 9/11, correspondents at the Pentagon reported on the military's response to the attack on the World Trade Center. Shortly after, the Pentagon itself was hit by American Airlines Flight 77, and the reporters were evacuated, with the networks being initially uncertain of their fate.
- And of course, United Airlines Flight 175's impact with the South Tower was captured live by all the camera crews who had arrived to cover the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 with the North Tower 17 minutes earlier.
- While reporting outside of the courthouse where the Robert Blake trial was taking place in early 2005, a disgruntled client fired shots at his lawyer less than a hundred feet from where cameras were rolling. (Blake was found not guilty, but Bonnie's children filed a civil action and he was found liable and had to pay $30M.)
- Anderson Cooper:
- Cooper, reporting on Hurricane Dennis in 2005, was almost decapitated when a piece of aluminum siding suddenly broke off in the wind and flew straight at him. He managed to get out of the way.
- He has covered Hurricane Katrina, tsunamis in Japan and Sri Lanka, earthquakes in Haiti and the Philippines, Baghdad at the height of the war, the Balkan civil war, the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, and the Arab Spring. He's reported amid hurricane winds, bombs going off behind him, flying street signs, famine, and floodwaters, and while in Egypt got punched in the face repeatedly and at one point refused to give his location on-air because reporters were in so much danger. There's a reason he spends so much time in a bulletproof vest.
- Al Roker did this during the 2005 hurricane season. During Hurricane Wilma, Al reported from South Florida and was clearly being affected by the heavy winds. At one point, he remarked that one of the other guys with him said, "Al, don't you wish you had your weight back?" (he had just recently had gastric bypass surgery). Al further said, "Right now, I think I do!!!" before the strong winds caused him to trip and fall.
- A memetic instance on short-lived Italian talk show 10 Minuti: father's rights advocate Nicola De Martino nearly immolated himself in protest on December 11, 2006. Several crewmen, the host, and De Martino's estranged son managed to talk him down and finish the interview. De Martino's dousing himself with fuel (Questa è benzina)Trans, which rights organization Figli Negati Trans. had "condemned," became widely circulated since.
- On July 12, 2007, Reuters reporters interviewing Iraqi citizens (some of whom were armed) were mistaken for militants by a US Army helicopter crew and fired upon. The story really became infamous when WikiLeaks posted the gun camera footage of the incident, given to them by Chelsea Manning.
- Less than two weeks after the above, in Phoenix, Arizona, two news helicopters from two different stations collided in midair while reporting on a police chase, plunging to the ground and exploding on impact in a park. Another news copter turned its camera to see the two copters fall to the ground. One of the reporters involved in the collision was heard screaming to his death on live TV before his audio faded.
- This video shows a Georgian (south of Russia, not Southern US) reporter getting shot by a sniper while in the middle of reporting on the South Ossetia conflict August 15, 2008.
- In Libya during the Arab Spring in 2010, NBC's Richard Engel, in rebel-held territory, was examining a rebel gun when mortar fire rang out and a shell landed less than fifty yards from where Engel was crouched. (Engel, a veteran military embed who had spent the previous fifteen-odd years mostly living in the area, hit the dirt out of reflex — but that didn't stop his dear friend Rachel Maddow from rather unhappily pointing out that every time he pulls that sort of stunt, the people who love him (including herself) worry a lot.)
- In late 2011 a group of reporters found their hotel in the Middle East taken over by terrorists. This didn't stop them from continuing to transmit reports back to America with news of what was going on in the hotel.
- During the 2011 conflict in Libya, Geraldo Rivera found himself under fire while broadcasting, leading to suitably dramatic footage of him seemingly leaning over and protecting his cameraman. He would later openly and proudly admit that the only reason he didn't run for his life was that he had bad knees.
- Mohammed Nabbous, who was a blogger, independent journalist, and one of the key figures in the Libyan revolution, was killed by a pro-Gaddafi sniper while on camera reporting from the Battle of Benghazi, March 19, 2011.
- During the bombardment of Homs, Syria by government troops, reporter Marie Colvin sent back reports of being shot at and shelled in the basement refuge she shared with both terrified Syrian civilians and her fellow journalists. The day after her last report, on February 22, 2012, she was killed.
- On May 19, 2013, meteorologists for the NBC affiliate KSN-3 were reporting on a major storm and possibility of a tornado. When the storm really whipped up, one of the meteorologists replied: "You know, JD, in twenty years I've never seen this, but I think it's our time to go." They do get massive bonus points for continuing to report even as the storm tears through.
- On August 26, 2015, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a reporter and cameraman (respectively) for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Virginia, were shot and killed during a live report and the gunman, a disgruntled ex-coworker and animal abuser, appeared on camera briefly as it fell over. The gunman himself uploaded his own video of the shooting shortly after, but it was later removed and both his Twitter and Facebook accounts were permanently suspended. The gunman fled and was shot in an altercation with police hours after the shooting.
- On December 2, 2015, a San Bernardino California anchor was caught behind a police chase involving the suspects of the San Bernardino terror attack when shots rang out.
- On December 5, 2015, a RTÉ reporter did some very dramatic reporting from the promenade at Salthill, Galway, Ireland (known to locals as 'The Prom'). In what is a case of both the extreme side of this trope and a case of Mundane Made Awesome, the whole thing went viral.
- On December 15, 2015, KIMT reporter Adam Sallet was reporting on a bank robbery when a bank employee ran out past the camera and told Sallet "That's the robber right there!" while pointing him out. Sallet cut his report short to place a 911 call regarding the robber.
- On January 11, 2016, a KTLA reporter was attacked by a bystander on the Hollywood Walk of Fame while reporting on the death of David Bowie.
- In January 2016, someone appeared to flash a gun in front of a Serbian news reporter in mid-report.
- On March 8, 2016, KTVU reporter Alex Savidge was almost hit by a car after it ran off the road. Everybody was okay as seen in the clip and the only casualty was one of the camera lights.
- On September 21, 2016, CNN reporter Ed Lavendera was knocked down by a rioter while covering a night of riots in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Al Jazeera lost several reporters during the Second Intifada, some of whom were recording at the time. Since reporters are required to give their locations to the IDF, the already-Israeli-critical network took it deeply personally when some of those deaths were caused by IDF strikes.
- A weather reporter is reporting on a torrential rainstorm with lightning and thunder, the whole bit, when suddenly there's a flash and the camera dissolves to static for two seconds before cutting back to the confused anchors. The weatherlady was struck by lightning. Worst of all, this is played for laughs on a comedy show about the funniest moments in television (she survived, but retired).
- Hell, every time Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel is outside, it's a Real Life example...
- One Braves game radio broadcast had a sequence something like this: "He hits a foul ball, and it's heading into the -" CRASH! "It's between your feet, Skip."
- Likewise, there's the one Minor League radio announcer who catches a fly ball without missing a beat in his commentary.
- Likewise, there's the one Minor League radio announcer who catches a fly ball without missing a beat in his commentary
- A slight variation, in which a reporter is reporting at an airport. Unfortunately, he's standing too close to the runway and gets clipped right in the head by a plane as it lands. Here are two examples.
- At least one police chase in the United States has had part of the foot chase go right through a news station. As one reporter at that station said it "While everyone else was reporting the news, we were the news."
- If World War III had broken out during the Cold War, emergency broadcast protocols actually would have called for radio stations to continue broadcasting emergency instructions for as long as possible — until the bombs hit, or until their emergency generators ran out of juice after the attack. Although pre-recorded messages were created (with the BBC known to have developed an entertainment-style program to keep morale up), someone had to be available to provide current information.note These days this trope likely applies less as many emergency notification messages are now delivered via computerized voice and should the need arise the system could be programmed remotely to provide information, or a report can be "phoned in" without the need to have a live person sitting at a studio microphone near a potential ground zero.
- On December 28, 2017, a reporter and cameraman for Cleveland's WOIO TV were robbed at gunpoint.
- In 2000, KABC Los Angeles news reporter Adrienne Alpert was severely injured by an explosion when the transmitter on her news van was mistakenly raised into a high voltage power line. She lost half her right leg and left arm, as well as part of her left foot and three fingers on her right hand, but ultimately survived and returned to work in a reduced role.
- During the 2018 conflict in Nicaragua, Ángel Gahona was shot to death as he was broadcasting in Facebook Live. He had been describing the damages at a local bank when the shots rang out, causing him to drop his phone, which obscured the camera when it landed, leading to a brief audio-only moment as bystanders screamed his name and ran up to him sobbing until another person picked up the phone and ceased broadcasting.
- June 28, 2018: The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland was subject to a shooting attack by a gunman who harbored a grudge against the paper for writing an unfavorable story about him, killing five employees and injuring two more before being apprehended.
- In August 2018, KRDO news reporter Crystal Story wound up becoming a news story herself when she and her cameraman were nearly hit by a van that tried to evade the police blockade of a crime scene.
- In October of 2018, while CNN anchors were reporting on a series of mail-bombs that had been sent to well-known Democratic Party backers and politicians, the fire alarm went off in their building. They evacuated a few minutes later, only to within the next hour wind up reporting from the street about their own office's evacuation due to a similar mail bomb having been sent to that building.
- One of the most infamous images of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (A magnitude 8.5 that killed around 5,000 people) was the live transmission of the Hoy Mismo morning show. While the studio lights shook above the hosts, one of them, Lourdes Guerrero, told the audience to stay calm, and they would wait until the earthquake was over to continue their program. At that very moment, one of the antennas at the studios collapsed, knocking the station off the air. While all of the hosts survived, some members of the Hoy Mismo production crew died while trying to escape the earthquake.
- During the 2019 West Texas shooting spree, KOSA had this happen twice during their live reporting from their studios at the Music City Mall. The first time the anchors had to flee when they saw shoppers begin to run from their windows at the studio. A while later, they returned to the studio and continued reporting until they had to flee again as the police began to sweep the mall (said shooter did not enter the mall itself).
- During the 2020 Minnesota Riots, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was arrested on live television by Minnesota police, along with his producer, cameraman and their security detail. Despite police claiming that they refused to move, they were shown to be cooperative and after a massive outcry, the four were released and they resumed their coverage.
- Later that same day, a confrontation between Black Lives Matter protesters and the Atlanta Police occured right at the entrance of CNN Center. During CNN's live report from inside the center, a protester threw a firework at the police, causing an explosion inside the building. The police subsequently dispersed tear gas near the entrance, forcing the CNN reporter and cameraman to leave the area.
- Also on that day, Leland Vittert of Fox News and his camera crew were assaulted when covering a similar protest outside the White House.
- On that same night in Phoenix, reporter Briana Whitney was assaulted by a protester during a similar riot.
- Also during the 2020 Minnesota Riots, MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi was hit by a police rubber bullet.
- On June 1, 2020 in Washington, Australian reporter Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were covering the protest when a police officer hit Myers and punched his camera.
- Later that same day, a confrontation between Black Lives Matter protesters and the Atlanta Police occured right at the entrance of CNN Center. During CNN's live report from inside the center, a protester threw a firework at the police,
- During Hurricane Michael in 2018, WMBB saw its studios being battered by the strong hurricane winds. As the reporters were commenting on the studio's overhang roof collapsing (which was being shown live via security camera), the power went out and the reporters evacuated the studios.
- On March 1st, 2021, San Diego Fox affliate KSWB was near the San Diego Convention Center covering a story about that year's Comic-Con when a brief shootout between a driver and a police officer happened.
- ESPN Colombia anchor Carlos Orduz was crushed by a TV screen in the middle of a live broadcast. He survived with minor bruises and a "blow to the nose".
- On May 25, 2021 during a news report on the one-year anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd an Associated Press reporter reporting on the memorial in Minneapolis had to dodge gunfire that came from a drive-by shooting.
- On MSNBC's coverage of Hurricane Ike, a reporter named Janet lampshaded this trope by declaring loudly that she was perfectly safe.
- There was an incident where Ed Hughes, the late anchor for Norfolk, VA CBS affiliate WTKR, was covering a hurricane at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
- Jim Cantore. Watch The Weather Channel any time there's a hurricane making landfall and you'll see this guy screaming into his microphone. He is so reliable about being where the weather is worst that there's a joke that if you see Jim Cantore in your home town, it's past time to have evacuated. The Weather Channel even made an ad parodying his reputation, as people start running for their lives just because he's visiting a beach for a vacation.
- During one Hurricane hitting Maryland, a local reporter was broadcasting from Ocean City and stood near the completely flooded beach to give an idea of what the storm surge was doing. When he was nearly finished with his report, a wave crashed over the beach barrier, drenching the reporter, who deadpanned "Back to you" and returned us to a laughing news room.
- Memphis' Action Five News had a series during the 90s featuring a reporter demonstrating how to get out of a flooded car, a flaming building and many other dangerous situations.
- One of the favorite jokes of Neil deGrasse Tyson: "If a meteor were to hit the US pacific coast, nobody would have to die, because we would know weeks in advance. Only two people will die: That one surfer who tries to ride the wave, and that one weather reporter who is narrating how the wave is coming towards him."
- Dan Rather is the Trope Codifier. His first major story as a reporter for KHOU-TV in Houston was the landfall of Hurricane Carla in 1961. He went to the National Weather Service office in Galveston, showed what was the first weather radar picture on television, and reported live from the Galveston Sea Wall as Carla hit the Texas coast. All while enduring floods, heavy wind, pounding rain, and snakes. Rather's tenacity got the attention of the higher-ups at CBS, and the rest is history.
- "Take your hands off me unless you plan to arrest me!" Dan Rather, covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention from the floor of the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, had seen a delegate from Georgia approaching the podium only to be hauled away toward the exit by Mayor Richard Daley's "security guards". When Dan tried to speak to the delegate, the police began beating him.
Walter Cronkite: I think we've got a bunch of THUGS here, Dan, if I may be permitted to say so.- Dan Rather also became the news on another famous occasion: in 1986, he was attacked and beaten by two assailants, one of whom repeatedly screamed, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" There was widespread coverage of the incident, which was unsolved for more than 10 years, and the enigmatic question—slightly modified to "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"— came to broad attention.
- "Take your hands off me unless you plan to arrest me!
- One of the people killed alongside of George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was Mark Kellogg, a newspaper journalist embedded with the 7th Cavalry.
- Atlantic editor Michael Kelly was killed while touring Iraq during the war in 2003.
- Ernie Pyle, one of the Second World War's most well-known and acclaimed correspondents, who was killed by a machine gun whilst covering the Okinawa campaign.
- Norwegian reporter Odd Karsten Tveit is famous for his calm when reporting from conflict zones such as the Middle East, as seen in this clip.
- During the ongoing landfall of Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in the Philippines, reporters from different stations covered the event in one of the places where the typhoon will directly hit. They survived while still broadcasting snippets of the city's damage due to the super typhoon live.
- Speaking of which, the Philippines routinely is this for much of its media industry since the country has spent several years at or near the top of lists of "most dangerous countries for journalists" (in peacetime, not covering wartime reportage, but still). Journalists are often targeted by powerful entrenched interests from both private (e.g. mining and logging firms) and public (e.g. Corrupt Politicians) sectors, and reporters being gunned down in broad daylight, usually by thugs on motorbikes, is as much news as whatever news they were already reporting. On a larger scale, entire media networks can be targeted for sanctions or even shutdowns based on the mere suspicion that they might be biased, anti-government, opposition media. And that's just under nominally democratic governments—during the martial law period in The '70s and The '80s all independent media were censored, bought out by dictatorship cronies, or fully shut down, and their staff fired or even arrested and imprisoned.
- The country's pervasive love-hate relationship with its media dates back to colonial regimes when anticolonial media outfits were similarly persecuted; see the Spanish-language, anti-American newspaper El Renacimiento ("The Renaissance/Rebirth") being sued by American officials for libel over an insulting editorial during the 1900s-decade, barely a decade since the United States colonised the then-new Philippine Republic, itself just newly freed from Spanish colonisers at the time. Censorship was also not uncommon under Spanish rule itself, jointly wielded by Spanish Catholic friars and civil/military authorities, though this would vary in severity depending on the governor-general in power.
- And while on the topic of the Philippines, one of the most iconic moments on Philippine Television was this episode of Jessica Soho Reports back in 2002, where seasoned journalist Jessica Soho flew to Afghanistan to report on the war-torn country. A portion of the episode had Soho and her crew tag along with the Danish Demining Group to check on their efforts on demining a community outside an airbase. They then got word of deminers getting killed while disarming landmines nearby, and they captured what was supposed to be a somber scene where the remains of a deminer were carried away in the DDG’s ambulance as it slowly rolled away… only for them to witness the ambulance exploding as it runs over an undetected landmine. Soho and her crew were unharmed, if not with a few minor scrapes and scratches, but 3 of the 5 passengers inside the ambulance had perished in the explosion. What’s worse? The area where the ambulance exploded, and thus the location of the landmine, was just outside the DDG’s field office, where Soho and her crew had visited just moments before and was considered cleared of landmines. The reaction of the DDG representative that’s with Soho the whole time says it all.
Mohammad Akbhar: "It's another tragedy! What happened? I don't know, my God..."
- Speaking of which, the Philippines routinely is this for much of its media industry since the country has spent several years at or near the top of lists of "most dangerous countries for journalists" (in peacetime, not covering wartime reportage, but still). Journalists are often targeted by powerful entrenched interests from both private (e.g. mining and logging firms) and public (e.g. Corrupt Politicians) sectors, and reporters being gunned down in broad daylight, usually by thugs on motorbikes, is as much news as whatever news they were already reporting. On a larger scale, entire media networks can be targeted for sanctions or even shutdowns based on the mere suspicion that they might be biased, anti-government, opposition media. And that's just under nominally democratic governments—during the martial law period in The '70s and The '80s all independent media were censored, bought out by dictatorship cronies, or fully shut down, and their staff fired or even arrested and imprisoned.
- Since the Mexican drug war began in 2006, Mexico became infamously dangerous for journalists. In 2022 alone, more journalists were killed in Mexico than in either Syria or Ukraine, which were active warzones. Reporters and media figures were targeted not only by drug cartels but also by corporations, police and military personnel and the government officials. It also didn't help that Mexican President AMLO regularly criticizes and even doxxes journalists, which only worsens the environment for them.
- WSAZ reporter Tori Yorgey was reporting on a water main break on January 19th, 2022, when a car hit her, knocking her and the camera down. She immediately mentioned that she was okay (it was a low speed impact) and assured the driver that she was fine.
- Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay was injured when the press car he was in was ambushed while covering the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- On November 22, 2022 Meteorologist Jason Myers and Sky3 pilot Chip Tayag of Charlotte, North Carolina's WBTV were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Southbound lanes of Interstate 77 during a traffic report.
- Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by a missile strike on October 13, 2023 while he and his colleagues were covering an exchange of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah.
