Tensions among editors, journalists and publishers over coverage of Iraq and other recent conflicts emerged again at the WAN conference with a senior BBC broadcaster accusing certain governments of shooting journalists to shut them up.
Mr Nick Gowing, a veteran broadcaster with the station, said his contribution was likely to annoy publishers like Lord (Conrad) Black, who on Monday accused the BBC of bias in its coverage of Iraq and other conflicts involving the US.
Mr Gowing, who is currently an anchorman with BBC World, said the BBC was not anti-war in its coverage of Iraq, but was questioning and was determined that dissent would get a regular airing on its news channels.
In a speech to the World Editors' Forum, which is part of the WAN conference, he said governments saw the new technology used by TV crews as a "real challenge" to their authority, particularly in conflict situations.
He said conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan witnessed the birth of a new type of television journalist known as "robohack" who had new lightweight equipment and could travel to any trouble spot and beam back pictures without expensive or cumbersome machinery.
"The trouble is, those in power, those in government, are seeing this lightweight, go anywhere, much cheaper technology as a real challenge to their capacity to be governments. This has now become a massively dangerous business. In simple terms they are trying to shut us up during conflicts or emergencies."
He said journalists had been killed in Iraq, the West Bank and in Afghanistan by governments. He said these were not isolated accidents. "This new capacity to do our business is both empowering and deadly, literally."
He said the so-called "robohack" technology was able to prove "when those in power are either lying or being dishonest". He said that was why "lethal force" was being used against people who were trying to "bear witness on behalf of their viewers".
"They are trying to shut us up, if necessary using lethal force," he added.
He then played the audience a television clip showing a camera crew being threatened in Afghanistan by a CIA operative. In the clip, a man identified as a CIA agent is heard shouting at a camera man: "Put that camera down or I'm going to f . . . . . shoot you". He said governments were worried about these new lightweight cameras and the accompanying journalists. He said these journalists "get under the skin of governments".
He claimed a young man was shot by the Israeli army after he took out one of these small video cameras in the West Bank recently.
He said journalists were not the only ones using this lightweight technology, but also non-journalists who witnessed crisis situations. He said the kind of cameras involved cost about €5,000 and could be bought by anyone. He said Palestinians used this technology to show the world that a massacre had occurred in Jenin.
He said the cheapness of the technology meant that orthodox media outlets were facing a range of other voices challenging their accounts of major events. He said this would test the likes of BBC, CNN and other large television news services.