The Rory Peck Awards go to the camerapeople who have captured extraordinary angles on world events.

The Rory Peck Awards 2002

(Edited highlights of the panel's review)

Watch the whole programme - 25 October 2002

KIRSTY WARK:
Rosie Boycott, there is a mixture of unmediated and mediated footage. Did you think one was more illuminating than the other?

ROSIE BOYCOTT:
They were all illuminating. The finalists they chose are excellent and this award is fantastic. The big news corporations, both here and in America, are using freelance cameramen more and more since they don't want to pay the insurance on their own cameramen and they don't want to risk their lives.

Much of what you see on the news is shot by freelance people, but with voiceover and a bit onto camera done in safety by the well-known correspondent. The Rory Peck Trust arranges insurance and look after their family if they get killed and that is very important.

KIRSTY WARK:
The other side is that the pressure comes from all the different networks and the freelancers take risks?

ROSIE BOYCOTT:
They take extraordinary risks, in particular the Afghan freelance photographer with 700 prisoners at the Mazar-e Sharif fort in Afghanistan. He only gets away with it because they think he is filming for a local TV company. He gets right up behind the snipers and you hear the snipers talking in English. There are denials that British or American special forces are involved and here is the proof.

PAUL MORLEY:
The most powerful stuff was the raw unmediated footage of the Twin Tower attacks with the camera sweeping up to see the plane hit the twin tower in reality. You saw a guy stumbling through the dust, there was no mediation, no commentary, no music, it "just was".

We are neutralised by entertainment and infotainment and this is the kind of thing we should be celebrating and supporting.

Some of the camera people's extraordinary footage was turned into films, entertainment almost. So their bravery was mellowed and sentimentalised.

JEANETTE WINTERSON:
One of the problems with film reportage is that it tends to sanitise the image. Although it's supposed to be realism you are cut off from the emotion. In these clips, it is not the case.

In State of Terror when Deborah Davidson goes into Hebron, it is profoundly moving. It made me cry. For once you don't feel there is a plastic wall between you and what is happening. This is important as we are so bombarded with images nowadays that we are becoming immune to them.