Every day, journalists present in Ukraine do their job at the risk of their lives. They try to describe what they experience and see on a daily basis with serenity, despite the anxiety-provoking climate that reigns in the country. During a program broadcast Sunday evening on BFM TV, the channel wanted to devote an entire report to the work of their journalists who are on the ground to avoid bombs. David Bouteiller and Clémence Dibout were in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, when the facts occurred. The two reporters found themselves, in spite of themselves, at the heart of a bombardment.
If they appeared with a smile on their face during their live on BFM TV, David Bouteiller and Clémence Dibout had the fear of their lives. A moment of panic during which the cameraman did not stop filming. In the video, we see Clémence Dibout, dressed in a bulletproof vest and a protective helmet on her head. Installed at the wheel of a car in a completely deserted street, the tension is palpable. Installed at his side, the journalist who has the camera in his hands asks his colleague where the fixer is. This person usually helps journalists in the field by providing them with contacts, and even interpreters. This is when things change. The alarmed driver notices with amazement that the man is no longer in the vehicle. In the distance, the two journalists hear a first strike. “The problem is that there was a second one which arrived three or four minutes later”he continues. “We approached, we hear the whistle [de la roquette] and there you have to act very quickly”, says David Bouteiller. We have to turn around, but too late, they hear “a dull sound, an explosion”.
In Kharkiv, a team of BFMTV journalists narrowly escaped a Russian bombardment. They tell ⤵ pic.twitter.com/xhhZT2pYNi
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) April 17, 2022
A strike that could have been fatal
If the fixer was found safe and sound, Clémence Dibout says she blamed herself. “The fact that we live it in itself, it has no interest”she begins. “We leave the camera on to understand what the population in Kharkiv can feel every day […] It’s important to show what it’s like from the inside, for Ukrainians who have to decide within the hour whether they should leave or not.”, explains the reporter. A strike that could have killed them. As the journalist explains, the bombardment they escaped claimed five lives.
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Helene Bardeau