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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Richard Pendry

Whose story? New Oscar nominated film September 5 evokes the tension and dilemmas of live crisis reporting

Men sitting in a TV control room watching monitors showing footage from 1972
In September 5, original ABC footage is shown on control room monitors, helping recreate the chaos and tension of the day Photograph: PR

In a darkened broadcasting control room, a team of sports journalists covering the 1972 Munich Olympics for ABC television realise to their horror that they have been thrust entirely unprepared into covering a terrifying global news event: a hostage crisis in the Olympic village that would come to be known as the Munich massacre.

The Munich Games were already a broadcasting landmark: the first time people on five continents could watch the Olympics live. But it also became the first time a terrorist attack would unfold live in front of a global television audience in real time, with all the ethical and practical dilemmas that entailed. The journalists’ predicaments and groundbreaking efforts are depicted in September 5, a new film that provides a fresh perspective on the production and consumption of news content.

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