MGEITF 2011: Alex Crawford’s humble address

The second day of this year’s Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival kicked off with a Worldview Address by Sky News foreign correspondent Alex Crawford.

And what a start to the day. Despite being jaded from the previous night’s post-MacTaggart drinks, this session had everyone sitting up and hanging on every word.

We were linked live to Libya to hear first hand how Crawford had been with the rebel insurgence as they entered Tripoli ahead of any other news team.

We saw some of the shocking and terrifying scenes as the news team strived to cover the story (and their own heads from gun shots).

This address – and certainly the way Crawford explained the motivation behind putting her life at risk – made everyone I spoke to think about how they could make a difference, however small.

Crawford joined Sky in 1989 and it took her 16 years to become a foreign correspondent – something that she had coveted for a long time. At 49, she has now been doing this enormously challenging role for six years, alongside juggling family life with four children!

Despite it being 2011, Crawford has still experienced sexist attitudes to female journalists in war zones. And not just from colleagues and people in the industry but from her own friends and personal network. Some of her closest friends have questioned her motivation for seemingly putting her job ahead of her family. She does, however, seem to have a very supportive husband and family. But her male colleague Stuart Ramsay would never have even been asked how he handled the job while having three children growing up back in the UK.

It is clear that Crawford has guts, in all aspects of how she conducts her life. A throw away comment from the chair, Jon Sopel (presenter of BBC One’s Politics Show), about being a Murdoch journalist saw a swift and stern retort from Crawford: “Who is a Murdoch journalist? I certainly don’t consider myself in that way. Sky is a public company. In fact, I have only met Murdoch once and then I challenged him on the fact that having his son James as CEO reeked of nepotism. After recovering from being door stepped inside the gates of what he considered one of his premises, he replied that the board believed James was the best person for the job”.

Crawford exuded a real sense of concern for what she did, who she did it with and who it impacted on. She talked of repression and liberation and clearly has an objective eye – mentioning that the rebels were less than innocent despite riding alongside their movement in Libya. She introduced and applauded her technical team, saying she was just the vocalist in a band.

Crawford also gave an insight about Sky’s extremely fragile technical infrastructure, which needed expertise and patience that Sky News viewers would take for granted. Finding the exact geography and trajectory to link into the satellite was like playing Jenga on the bonnet of a jeep as it moved forward, she said.

What also came across loud and clear was the camaraderie among rival news-gathering companies. In London, media companies compete for firsts, scoops and exclusives. But in Libya, as in Afghanistan, the key thing is that everyone helps each other. Whether it is access to people, intelligence, technical support, help getting a message home and of course, looking out for and protecting each other. Crawford gave examples of help from colleagues at the BBC and The Telegraph.

All in all, it was a humbling experience that gave everyone a boost to do the best they can – whatever they choose to do.

I bumped into the BBC’s media correspondent Torin Douglas outside the auditorium, who said it was the best individual session he had attended at Edinburgh in several years. But then it was early in the day and we hadn’t seen the TOWIE masterclass yet… yes hmmm!