Vlad Jecan

The power of the press is indisputable, especially in wartime. It has become general knowledge that the outcome of the Vietnam War was heavily influenced by correspondents who went beyond military issues and reported the tragic reality of a confusing war. War reporting existed in one way or another since the first group of primitive men tried to kill another group. In fact, the first “reported” battle is that of Kadesh in 1274 BC, when Ramesses II fought the Hittite Empire. The Pharaoh ordered inscriptions detailing the battle on temples in Abydos, Luxor and Karnak[1]. However, highly propagandistic, the hieroglyphs do not account the battle in its full extent. Nor do Caesar’s writings twelve centuries later when he narrates his attept to invade Britain.

Caesar, “who practiced war journalism before it was invented”[2], never intended for De Bello Gallico to have a factual orientation. Perhaps the first real war correspondent, however, was Pheidippides who immediately set for Athens to deliver news of victory after the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon[3].

In any case, seeking the beginning of war reporting so far back in history is very dangerous. However tempting it may be, attributing the invention of the (sub)genre to a pharaoh, a Roman general or a humble messenger is mere misunderstanding of history in particular and journalism as a whole.

People have always found a way to get informed on military expeditions, even before Caesar tried war reporting or “Al Gore invented the Internet”, as the saying goes. However, in the late 18^th century and throughout the 19^th, newspapers relied on letters sent by officers directly from the battlefield. The information provided served mostly to the editors who frequently mixed fact with opinion. These letters contained hardly any newsworthy information and presented only one side of the story.

At some point, the editors had enough. They wanted to send somebody who could go beyond the troop maneuvers, attack plans, enemy numbers and similar information provided by the officers. The public demanded to know the real side of war to its full brutality. When The Times finally sent William Howard Russell  to cover the Crimean War in 1854, he wrote a letter to the Times’ editors asking: “Am I to tell these things or hold my tongue?”[4]. With this question, war reporting was born.

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[1] Gardiner, Alan, The Inscriptions of Ramesses II, Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 28

[2] Evans, Harold, Reporting in the Time of Conflict, Newseum, http://www.newseum.org/warstories/essay/index.htm

[3] Sekunda, Nick, Marathon 490 BC, Osprey Publishing, 2002, p. 50 – 51

[4] http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article=72