| A steep learning curve |
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 Backgammon in Jerusalem I had first discovered how useful Press Accreditation could be back in 1990 in Montreal. Oscar and I had arrived in Montreal to attend the UIA Congress. The only problem was that neither of us could afford the registration fee. We noticed that people with yellow badges seemed to be having no problems with all the security checks and we wondered what they could be. We discovered that all the people with yellow badges were from the press. Before long Oscar had become the Press representative for Argentina and I had become the press representative for Australasia. We had the yellow badges we needed and we also had a job to do. By 1996 in Istanbul Reuters and other global agencies were using my press releases. I had the right contacts in the right places and Press Accreditation made it possible to probe further. It was through my Press Accreditation that I was able to meet and interview people like Nelson Mandela. There were risks of course and you had to take your chance. In Istanbul I arriveda at one meeting to find the building surrounded by tanks. I was the only person allowed to cross the police lines and so I became the negotiator. The meeting eventually went ahead and I learned more than anyone about the atrocities in China where nuclear warheads were being exploded over political prisoners in a medical experiment. I discovered how the fallout from Chenobyl had contanminated the Turkish tea plantations. My press releases were published in Turkish but never picked up by the global media. A few months later I was again using my press accreditation to cross police lines, this time in Barcelona. The organisers of the UIA Congress had invited students along to head key architects, but then they had arranged the presentations in a small hall which resulted in the students being excluded. The student were irate. They bought every drum and every whistle they could find in Barcelona, surrounded the hall and created such a din that it was impossible for anyone inside the hall to hear anything. It was not long before there were riot police everywhere. With my Press Accreditation I was able to cross the barricades to try try to negotiate between the students and the organisers. My problem was that I did not speak any Spanish. The outcome was succdessful. The entire Congress was moved to a new venue at the Olympic Stadium with 10,000 seats rather than 500. The role of the media is to bring about change. Sometimes with words and sometimes in other ways. |
