AFP Official Stresses Importance of On-Ground Reporting

Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)–On-the-ground reporting is increasingly important amid heightened global uncertainties, Michael Mainville, Asia-Pacific regional director at Agence France-Presse, or AFP, said Wednesday. There is significance “of knowing that there are people who can see with their own eyes and report (the news) to the rest of the world,” Mainville said in a speech in Tokyo at the Economic Security Exhibition & Conference, or Econosec Japan 2025, which was hosted by the event’s organizing committee and Jiji Press. Mainville said that when he was working with a team of AFP journalists in Crimea in March 2014, he heard that Russia had sent in secret armed troops to surround a Ukrainian military base. When he arrived at the scene, Mainville said, he witnessed “hundreds of soldiers dressed in military uniform and carrying automatic rifles” engaging in a standoff with Ukrainian soldiers. Although the Russian side had denied sending troops there, Mainville said, “We knew differently because we were there on the ground.” This led to a swift reporting of the situation centered around Russia’s annexation of Crimea, he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]