The latest digital technology is making real-time coverage and swift uplinking available to anyone, anywhere. Even the most remote and, in theory, operationally secure locations are now transparent. Nik Gowing reports

The profound impact of digital images and eye-witness accounts is exhilarating for those of us working for major global news channels like BBC World. It is increasingly ominous for those responsible for managing crises in government, the military and security agencies, and in the corporate world.

In its crudest form, the video images from a terrorist or insurgent website can sometimes have more influence on credibility and public perceptions than the statements from a US president

Challenges to official versions are proliferating because of the deluge of uncensored video of incidents that multiplies on websites. This makes the power and credibility of governments more vulnerable in a crisis.

Ministers, commanders officials and executives can no longer assume they have control of data gathering and information release. But most are in denial.


Potentially, anyone with a mobile phone or digital camera is a member of the real-time media now. Their capacity to challenge official claims is profound. The way the unofficial mobile phone images of Saddam Hussein's execution instantly discredited the Iraqi National Security Adviser's statements about 'order' during the process is a sharp example of the overall trend.

Last summer, during the war with Hezbollah, Israeli military censorship was undermined by Israelis with cameras, mobile phones and blogs who challenged the official versions of fighting put out by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The IDF explanation was often belated and could not counter the imagery.

Immediately after the bombings on the London transport system on 7 July 2005, the BBC received 20,000 emails, 3,000 text messages, 1,000 digital images and 20 video files

Immediately after the bombings on the London transport system on 7 July 2005, the BBC received 20,000 emails, 3,000 text messages, 1,000 digital images and 20 video files. Other broadcast organisations experienced a similar deluge.

Most of these 'amateur' dispatches included graphic eye-witness accounts. Most significantly, many challenged the official version, in the first couple of hours, that there had been a 'power surge' on the underground. They confirmed there had indeed been bomb explosions with large numbers of casualties. They changed public perceptions and undermined the credibility of the police and ministerial versions as they emerged.


For years, my predictions of this new political vulnerability were politely disregarded. "We will always command information in a crisis," one senior official told me, just before the US military's disaster over the Abu Ghraib prison abuse pictures. Maybe, at last, the official mindset of denial is starting to shift.

In February 2006, the then British Defence Secretary, John Reid, spoke publicly of the new "uneven battlefield of one-sided scrutiny". Simultaneously, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a similar admission of official inadequacy. Reid and Rumsfeld both had the same message: "We all need to get smarter and understand this [real-time information] battlespace better".

They are right.

Nik gowing is Main Presenter for BBC World. He currently hosts World News Today at 2100 GMT daily