Reuters Videograper in Haiti Finds Friendly Embassy with Internet to FTP First Quake Footage
Reuters was first with this stunning video of the devastating earthquake in Haiti which have been seen on CNN, CBS News, on YouTube and many outlets around the globe.
With electricity out throughout the capital of Port au Prince, a resourceful stringer brought the video file on a laptop to a “friendly embassy” with an Internet connection and sent the historic footage via FTP to London.
Earlier today in New York, we spoke about the crisis coverage with Sean Maguire, the London-based global editor of politics and world affairs who happened to be in New York.
He explained how Reuters prepares by for crisis coverage by creating networks of local stringers. The news service’s Haiti text string went missing for several hours today, as Sean said in the interview, but resurfaced by late afternoon.
He told me, “this is kind of story that wire services were invented for.”
Not relying just on FTP to get files out of the county, the news service flew a satellite transmission unit to the Port au Prince airport this morning on the first chartered flight, Maguire told me.
More on television coverage of the Haiti crisis can be found on TVNewser.
Andy Plesser, Executive Producer