Role of war correspondents highlighted

THE story of war – as told through the eyes of the men and women reporting from the front line comes under the spotlight in a unique exhibition opening in Manchester next month.

‘War Correspondent – Reporting Under Fire Since 1914’ is the first major exhibition on the role of journalists who’ve put their lives on the line alongside soldiers, sailors and airmen from the Somme and Passchendaele to the Falklands, Gulf and Afghanistan.

The Imperial War Museum North is focusing in particular on the works of 12 famous correspondents –

their reports (the printed word, radio reports and TV broadcasts), their equipment, clothing (including Martin Bell’s trademark white suit), their brushes with death (such as the bullet which injured Kate Adie in the Lebanon).

As well as the contemporaneous accounts – including Brian Hanrahan’s timeless ‘I counted them all out…’ from HMS Hermes in the Falklands – IWM staff have interviewed some of the correspondents to look back on the reports from the front line and explain how they dealt with danger and the problems of censorship.

The dozen correspondents at the heart of the seven-month exhibition are: Philip Gibbs (WW1); Martha Gellhorn (Spanish Civil War); Clare Hollingworth, Alan Moorehead and the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby (WW2); ITN’s Michael Nicholson (Vietnam); the late Brian Hanrahan (Falklands); Kate Adie and Jeremy Bowen (Gulf War); Martin Bell (Balkans); Rageh Omaar (Iraq) and John Simpson (Afghanistan).

The exhibition coincides with the opening of the MediaCity development – a vast complex opposite the IWM which will be home to numerous departments of the BBC and ITV Granada from later this year.

Entry to the exhibition – and the rest of the museum – is free. ‘War correspondent’ runs from May 28 until January 2 2012.

Source : http://www.navynews.co.uk