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Covering The Libyan Crisis - part 3 of 1 2 3 4 5

by Darrin Zammit-Lupi Published 01/08/2013

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Libyan rebels ride on the back of a vehicle outside the town of Brega, 240km (149 miles) southwest of the eastern city of Benghazi, August 28, 2011.

The first pictures were on the wire being picked up by clients worldwide before the pilots had even disembarked from their planes. This was big news - the two defecting colonels would soon offer the first conclusive evidence that Gaddafi was bombing his own people.

Canada's CTV called me up later that evening and did a live phone interview during their lunchtime news broadcast. Thankfully no coughing fits or major gaffs on my part, but I think I'd rather stick to shooting pictures, thank you very much.

The next morning, members of the international media started flooding in.

By the evening, every major TV news network and agency had their people on the ground in Malta.

The embassy became a focal point. Protests there became noisier and angrier. Flags were burnt, Gaddafi posters ripped to shreds, and people were quickly becoming hysterical. The police guarding the embassy were evidently very nervous. Embassy staff erected razor wire along the outer walls of the building. Clashes broke out when both the protestors and pro-Gaddafi supporters tried to demonstrate there at the same time.

Working days became longer. I needed to be at the airport whenever an evacuation flight came in. We needed pictures of aircraft of all the different air forces taking part in the operation, to keep clients in those countries happy. Possibly more importantly, I needed to speak to evacuees to see if they had pictures Reuters could buy off them. I got lucky the first time I tried that, and though the pictures were rather poor quality-wise, they were the first we were seeing of the chaos at Tripoli airport.


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Injured British photojournalist Guy Martin makes a thumbs up gesture as he is lifted by firefighters off the cargo ship Marianne Danica after arriving from Misrata in Libya in Valletta's Grand Harbour April 26, 2011. A photographer working with Panos Pictures agency, Martin was injured in the same attack which killed British photojournalist Tim Hetherington and American photojournalist Chris Hondros in Misrata on April 20.

The pressure to get good shots out on the wire as quickly as possible never let up, most especially so when a catamaran arrived in Malta carrying a large number of American evacuees. Their late evening arrival was being shown live on several TV news networks. All the media were gathered on a rooftop overlooking the arrival quay. I got my laptop set up and connected to the 3G network, though not without problems - possibly caused by all the satellite transmitters all around. I prepared my captions beforehand, and once things got going, I was able to switch cards back and forth from the cameras to the laptop and get my pictures transmitted extremely quickly.


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1st Published 01/08/2013
last update 11/11/2019 11:46:30

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