Beyond the Front Line

by Mike McRoberts

From risking imprisonment in order to secretly interview Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, to battling the Solomon Islands’ Weather Coast to track down the notorious warlord Harold Keke, New Zealand journalist Mike McRoberts has made a habit of telling difficult and challenging stories.

In a reporting career spanning 25 years, he is best known for his work in some of the world’s most dangerous places: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. Mike has also covered some of the world’s worst natural disasters – in the Philippines, China and Haiti, and the devastating earthquakes in his hometown of Christchurch.
In the story behind the stories, Mike gives the reader a backstage pass to some of the biggest news events of the past decade, and candidly reveals the sometimes frightening, often fraught ways those stories have made it to air.

From the emotion of helping save a five-year-old girl injured during the earthquake in Haiti, or the shrewdness of hiding from the Israeli Defense Force in the Gaza strip, Mike’s conver­sationally written stories are compelling.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

'So much of what you see and hear and feel in conflict and disaster zones you have to suppress. I know it goes against everything we have ever been told about dealing with trauma, but when you are there doing a job you have to find a way to keep a lid on it, otherwise you would never be able to work. The risk with that, of course, is that something at some point triggers your emotions and they come flooding out. The sight of two belligerent soldiers denying a man the right to take his child for medical care was that trigger for me.
Months of anxiety and frustration, sadness and repulsion came pouring out. I cannot even begin to repeat the string of obscenities I screamed at the soldiers, but they were left in no doubt what I thought about them. In reality, probably the only thing that actually registered with them was that I was an accredited member of the international press, with my photo ID around my neck to prove it. They let the man through.
While still carrying his daughter, the man briefly stopped to put his hand up to my arm and we nodded to each other. Then he was gone.
When I looked down, I had his daughter's blood on my shirt. It was all I could manage to walk a couple of steps to the curb. Then I sat down and wept.'
- From the chapter on Iraq, 2003

Mike McRoberts is a face I associate with disasters, which feels like such an odd thing to type. He's co-presented 3News/Newshub, one of the main news bulletins in New Zealand, since 2005, and has reported and presented frequently on 60 minutes as well. He's usually the face conveying information from far away places -- wars, natural disasters, sometimes even significant sporting events. Of course sometimes, as with the Christchurch earthquakes or Pike River Mine, the disasters are local. More often than not, he's there, informing many New Zealanders on what is actually happening.

This was a very interesting look into that process, and I have to say the job sounds terrifying! I think my favourite chapter was, 'A tangible difference - reporting on the charities', as it was quite a nice change of pace from the more intense chapters. I'm very impressed with how calm he and those around him, especially his main cameraman Dutchie, managed to stay in some very alarming situations.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book for the Book Riot 2019 Read Harder Challenge in the category of: A book by a journalist or about journalism. This book fits both those criteria, being written by New Zealand journalist Mike McRoberts and being about his career as a journalist on the front line in a variety of conflicts and natural disasters.

This was a really interesting read. I had no idea of how much effort and personal risk goes into reporting from the world's hotspots, nor just how much of a shoestring budget New Zealand journalists operate on. As you would expect from a journalist, Mike McRoberts spins an interesting and entertaining tale and gives some fascinating insights into everything that goes on behind the scenes of what we see on our daily TV news bulletins.

One of the things that struck me were the times in which McRoberts and his camerman ended up getting stories that no other news media in the world got because of their ingenuity, perseverance, and risk-taking. He is rightly proud of those stories but I'm sure I'm not alone as a viewer in having had absolutely no appreciation of what he had accomplished. Watching the news from the comfort of my living room, those stories appeared no different from any others. What a thankless job this type of news reporting must be when the only people who can fully comprehend the work behind the story going to air are other journalists.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and would recommend it to anyone interested in the world and current affairs.

[Kyle Wadsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike McRoberts' Memoir is a very powerful story of his brilliant action-packed career, and does not lack any fascinating detail. This book is quite literally hard to put down, and Mike refreshingly does not hide any rouge thought about TVNZ's coverage, TV3's or even his own reporting. It's an honest look at the world of international journalism and it was a privlage to read.

[Sheila Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note that GoodReads has the wrong title! It is "Beyond The Front Line" - an inspiring memoir of reporting in crisis situations around the world. I had to skip a few chapters - too many tragic situations. Yet he, and so many other reporters, are right there on the ground in one tragedy after another. I don't know how they do it.