CNN International (DStv 401) considers the city of Homs in Syria one of the most dangerous places the international news network's reporters ever had to cover. This weekend CNN International has a gripping one hour special, 72 Hours Under Fire, which will look at how CNN International and its own reporters are struggling to remain safe and get the stories out.
72 Hours Under Fire will show the challenges and dangers CNN reporters face while on assignment in Homs. As told by the journalists who risked their lives to get into Homs and the CNN news executives tasked with keeping them safe, 72 Hours Under Fire will give viewers an inside look at the complexities and risks involved in getting the story out of Syria.
72 Hours Under Fire will be shown on CNN International on Friday 9 March at 22:00 (South African time) with repeats on Saturday 10 March at 11:00 and 22:00, Sunday 04:00 at 04:00 and 12:00.
''Homs is as challenging an editorial operation as we have encountered,” says Tony Maddox, the executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.
The experienced team CNN sent into Homs included Beirut-based correspondent Arwa Damon, photojournalist Neil Hallsworth and security risk advisor Tim Crockett. 72 Hours Under Fire chronicles their journey into and out of Homs, the dangers they faced while newsgathering and reporting there and why this assignment was different than previous ones. Damon, Hallsworth and Crockett are interviewed by CNN anchor Michael Holmes, who also narrates the documentary.
''We are taking the unusual step of covering our journalists' experience in Homs because it is another piece of the untold story in Syria,'' says Mark Whitaker, the executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide. ''The fact that the Syrian government doesn't want the world to know what is happening in places like Homs, and the enormous effort and courage it has taken for Western journalists to cover the brutal crackdown there, is part of the story. We thought it was important to take our viewers behind the scenes to see and feel that part of this conflict, too.''
