Click here to view Jane Cowan's Media Award acceptance speech from

September 5th 2009.

Journalist Jane Cowan accepting

the Media Award from Felicity May,

ASTSS Media Award Chairperson.

Photo taken at the Bushfire Royal

Commission September 24th 2009.

Background to ‘Black Saturday’Coverage

By: Jane Cowan 

This entry consists of a series of my stories for the 7 pm ABC News TV News bulletins on the Black Saturday bushfire disaster and its’ aftermath. The coverage spans several months, has involved countless interviews and continues today. I was the first television journalist to reach Marysville the morning after the fires, breaking word that the townhad been wiped out and that people had lost their lives. My reports provided an accurate, documented account - one that has been referenced more that once atthe Royal Commission as it investigates the fires.

With trees across roads, phone towers burnt and authorities themselves apparently unaware of what had happened in Marysville, I took the decision early on February the eighth to go there by helicopter. When myself and my crew landed on the oval we were confronted with a shell-shocked group of townspeople who had survived a fire that killed 34 of their friends, neighbours and loved ones. I had crossed live into ABC TV from the air, but once on the ground reporting initially came second to our jobs as human beings. We lent our satellite phone so people could call and tell their families they were alive, shared what we knew and offered what little comfort we could. Eventually I briefly interviewed a handful of survivors who were in a fit state and wanting to talk on camera. I was please to later see one Marysville resident (Russell Glenn) describe these interviews in a submission to the Royal commission as “respectful and low key”. I have generally judged my reports as successful if the people who participated in them were comfortable with the result.

In the days after February 7, I returned repeatedly to the fire ravaged towns, staying in touch with the survivors I had met and pursuing issues they confronted in the recovery. Always my aim has been to report with heart as well as factual accuracy.

The third element of my reporting has been my coverage of the Royal Commission set up to investigate the fires. Rather than dipping in and out of the hearings, the ABC has given me the scope to be there every day. I have done my best to comprehensively cover the issues, while honouring the accounts of survivors who have shown such courage in giving evidence through their grief. One example that set my approach apart (not included in the highlights but worth mentioning) was the day a St Andrews' resident gave evidence, describing how she’d been on the phone to her son moments before he perished in the family home. Afterwards she asked that neither her voice nor her image be broadcast. This request, made close to deadline, presented a difficulty for a visual medium. Other networks went ahead and used her voice but I had an actor read the words. It didn’t make for as slick a TV story but it was truer to her wishes and I figured the least I could to avoid further trauma.

Black Saturday has been more than a story, a catastrophe often reported while grappling with strong emotions of my own in response to the distress I witnessed. I’ve felt privileged to give voice to those who survived and to perhaps ask questions that those who perished cannot. I’ve been humbled by the generosity of everyone I have met - who’ve without exception shown warmth in the worst moments of their lives. If I have managed to do their experiences justice, then I am content.