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tijn has disappeared. We don’t know whether he’s still alive.” It’s the middle of the night when a call from our head of foreign affairs jolts me awake. 

It’s about Stijn, the camera operator currently filming in Beirut with VTM NIEUWS correspondent Robin. A missile had struck nearby their hotel that night. After they had rushed to the scene, things got seriously out of hand. Shots were fired; chaos ensued. The boss tells me Robin had been beaten and taken in for interrogation. He’s injured and on his way to hospital. 

But where’s Stijn?

We quickly form a group and, at four in the morning, start ringing around Beirut’s hospitals. Over three hours later, a Lebanese nurse at one of the capital’s A&E departments finally utters the words: “Stijn De Smet? Yes, he’s here. I’ll put him in a wheelchair and bring him to the phone.”

Robin and Stijn’s story goes global. TV stations dispatch teams to Antwerp’s Mediaplein square, the city’s media hub, to gather comment; reporters are standing glued to their phones. I even find myself speaking on our own news programme. Anchor Freek Braeckman asks me a series of unavoidable questions: “Did we, as editors, do enough to prevent this situation?” and “Why are we taking these sorts of risks?”

My answers are candid. There is no doubt that we sent experienced people, each one having followed special training, to pursue their work in war zones. When they’re looking down the barrel of a gun, they know exactly what to do. 

Dilemma

When Robin and Stijn later return to the safety of Belgium, they agree with my response. They remained calm and knew they should keep talking; they had to do their best to remain composed. For now, they appear to be managing the psychological and physical toll well.

Our motives for being in this line of work are clear – in fact, they have never been clearer. In an age of social media awash with dubious photos and videos, journalists providing objective reporting on the ground play a crucial role. That includes reporters at the big media outlets like CNN or the BBC just as much as our team. We are a news broadcaster with a global outlook, because we know that news has no borders. 

Robin is already back in Syria, and Stijn intends to return once fully recovered. Giving Robin permission to head back out was a tough decision. We want them to be back in the field, but we also feel an overwhel­ming sense of responsibility. We are the ones who make the final call; we are the ones who allow them to go.

The risks are easy to downplay in the heat of the moment, but events in Lebanon have pushed them into full view. From one second to the next, you find yourself answering the calls of Stijn’s distraught father, hearing he’s been shot. Or you’re sitting with Robin’s wife in the hospital waiting room, eager to hear news of his injuries. We know exactly what’s at stake. 

It’s a dilemma that will raise its head with each foreign mission, and we must keep having that discussion. The one thing we can agree on was said in Robin’s very first response: “No story is worth dying for.”