Australian journalists are abandoning field coverage of the earthquake and tsunami devastation and flying out of Japan, as radiation fears from damaged nuclear reactors worsen.
Commercial television crews have retreated to Tokyo, with Seven and Ten evacuating its journalists from Japan altogether. Other anxious news bosses are leaving reporters in the tsunami-hit north for now, while News Limited has flown a medical assessor from Sydney to Tokyo to report on the safety of its people.
Seven news boss Peter Meakin told Crikey this morning “most — if not all” journalists will have left the country by tonight.
“We have been taking advice on radiation levels and don’t intend to take any avoidable risks,” he said. “Accordingly, we have booked flights out of Japan for all our reporters and camera crews.
“I have no doubt that journalists from some organisations will elect to stay in Japan but our staff should feel no pressure to join them.”
Today host Karl Stefanovic, for one, is on a plane out. He tweeted overnight: “Sad because its such an important story. What about these people who can’t leave. No choice. Calm in the face of it all.” At Haneda Airport in Tokyo, during another large aftershock, he said: “Lights still shaking. Saw a ten news crew dive under tables..a bit on edge.The locals are cool.I’m having scotch”.
That Ten crew included globe-trotting former Al Jazeera journalist Hamish MacDonald, now roaming reporter for 6pm with George Negus. MacDonald has been documenting the “incredible destruction” in Sendai and desperate queues for food and fuel. Before flying out, he tweeted while taking cover: “family next to us is under the table praying. american family with two small kids.”
A Ten News spokesperson tells Crikey their crews all left yesterday.
Nine reporter Tom Steinfort also tweeted overnight he was flying out of Tokyo today. Nine also has senior Sydney reporter Mark Burrows, Damian Ryan and Amelia Adams on the ground — Mark Calvert, Nine’s news and current affairs director, told Crikey they’ve been pulled back to Tokyo, “and we’re constantly re-assessing the situation”.
“A move further south is likely. Total withdrawal from Japan is possible,” he said. Nine is not alone — some US TV networks have also retreated to Tokyo.
The ABC has three crews in the tsunami-hit areas of northern Japan, including resident Tokyo correspondent Mark Willacy and Beijing-based reporter Stephen McDonell, at a safe distance from the failing nuclear reactors at Fukushima and now working closer together. Its bureau in Tokyo is also providing support and coverage.
All staff will remain for now, but as ABC News policy head Alan Sunderland told Crikey today: “We have plans to get our staff out quickly if we need to.
“ABC News has significant experience in covering major overseas stories, and of course we also have our own permanent bureau in Japan staffed by both Australian and Japanese employees,” he said. “We have an important duty of care to all of those staff, as well as additional teams who have flown into the country to help cover the story. The ABC is therefore taking the best possible advice on safety on the ground.”
Australian newspaper journalists will also maintain a presence. Paul Whittaker, editor of The Australian, says he’s monitoring the situation “in terms of any further actions that may be warranted”. Staff safety, he says, is “paramount”.
“We have been monitoring events closely in relation to the radiation exclusion zone since its inception and began moving our people much further away from the affected area yesterday,” he told Crikey.
But other News Limited journalists are leaving. Herald Sun news boss Mark Alexander says the paper has decided to fly out Andrew Rule, its star recent recruit from Fairfax, and photographer Alex Coppel. He says News HQ in Sydney organised for the medical assessor to go to Tokyo and monitor the situation.
Surely Andrew Bolt is lining up ready to go!
wow… no one else reading this one?… hello?… (echo…)
the other one on Japan and the nuclear accident, got us all going – maybe there was no time left for people to read this one too!
(silence)
sigh….
To Jason, the author of this piece: it really was a good read!
Yes, the Bolter must be straining at the leash to set foot near those nuclear reactors and report the facts of how safe they still are relative to, say, swimming with whale sharks.
He summed-up the Chernobyl repercussions on ABC’s Insiders last Sunday and convinced me it was a fuss over nothing.
I’ve lived in Japan since 1992. Last Friday’s earthquake wasn’t my first, won’t be my last.
Jason Whittaker’s article “Radiation fears drive journos out of Japan, others vow to stay” made me laugh and cry. I laughed, imagining the Ten news crew diving under tables during Tuesday evening’s aftershock, the umpteenth, despite their flying into a city several hundred kilometers from the disaster zone specifically to milk ratings via disaster porn and hysteria. I cried, because yesterday’s crikey just added 2 bits to the general sensationalism being whipped up by media just about everywhere except… Japan.
Inside the evacuation area around the Fukushima nuclear power plants, the radiation level peaked at 12mSv (that’s on workers being measured AT THE GATE of the plant, at the time of the fires). It’s now 2mSv. I think the standard CT scan in a hospital is about 6mSv.
Outside the evacuation area, well, there’s practically nothing in terms of radiation. Thats why the evacuation area is still a 20+10 kilometre radius from the plants. It might be worth informing geographically challenged journalists that the evacuation area is several hundred kilometres from the major population areas to the south.
Inside the area directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami, a massive cleanup & rescue operation is underway. The spirit of the community is unbreakable.
Outside the area, less than a week after the largest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history, life is pretty much back to normal. The trains are running on time. Food, fuel, all services are no problem. Communications have been OK for the most part (ie fibreoptic is OK, wireless networks not so). All is pretty much the same as before last week’s big one. The rolling blackouts planned for a small eastern section of the country are either proceeding on schedule or being cancelled as unneeded. I’d have been happy to invite Karl Stefanovic et al over for sashimi and beers, but alas.
Declan – thanks for the first hand update. Much appreciated. I hope the reports that you are being told are accurate. Am I a little too suspicious to wonder if what “govts tell us” even in the democratic nations… might not always be exactly as it is?
But you offer a good balance to the negative and frightening reports. I hope you are spot on regarding the limited impact of the troubled nuclear power stations. Better all round if so.