How we've moved on.
As recently as ten years ago, journalists would still be fighting for a phone line to report breaking news from the scene of an event.
This morning, at 8am, the Birmingham Mail's Faraz Yousufzai used a mixture of email and phone text to file his 674 words of gripping copy from Karachi.
Faraz had been in Pakistan to attend his cousin's wedding, his first trip there for 15 years. Little did he know it wuld coincide with what could be his ancestors' homeland's worst period of civil unrest.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto filled news bulletins and newspapers everywhere, and today's Birmingham Mail reported tributes and responses from across the local and international community.
But how to get something different?
A call and email to Faraz seemed like a long shot... he would surely be too busy to respond. But respond he did, with 500 words by email overnight in time for first editions. And, as the paper was just going to press, more descriptions of the aftermath in Karachi by continuous text messages to my mobile which I transcribed into his piece.
Read Faraz's despatch on p4 of tonight's Birmingham Mail, or click onto birminghammail.net to find it.
NB: Apologies to Faraz for earlier editions incorrectly stating he had been in Pakistan to attend a funeral... it was his cousin's wedding.
Comments (2)
Great piece in tonight's Mail from Faraz
Posted by Smithy | December 28, 2007 4:26 PM
Posted on December 28, 2007 16:26
As recently as 1997, I filed copy to yourself from a wireless phone on a paddle steamer on the Nile (see "Egypt") following the massacre of tourists at Luxor.
Despite an accumulating bill of £12.50-per-minute, you put me on hold and when you finally came back to me you asked "how hot is it there?" Some things never change - but should!
Posted by Reg Pither | January 17, 2008 4:00 PM
Posted on January 17, 2008 16:00