ELIZABETH JACKSON: When prisoners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were moved from Bali to Nusa Kambangan, Australian media outlets moved reporters, photographers and crews to the city of Cilacap.
The work is hot, information is hard to come by, and with the lives of two people on the line, the story is fraught with ethical difficulties too.
The ABC's Greg Jennett reflects here on more than a week spent in Cilacap.
GREG JENNETT: It is a strange news story where the ending is known at the beginning, because the best of them usually twist or turn in unpredictable ways before the conclusion is reached.
But the final, wretched weeks in the lives of drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are a long and agonising advance towards what seems an inescapable end on Nusa Kambangan prison island.
The transfer of the prisoners from Bali to central Java was the last major development in the story and it may stand as the only one until the day comes when Indonesia's attorney-general finally calls time on the men.
Everything else - the court appeals, the family visits and the pleas for clemency - just fill that void between now and the pre-determined conclusion.
Reporters covering events in Cilacap this last week know where the story's heading, but they toil each day to update it anyway. That could sound like a standard news assignment, but reporting in Cilacap is unique.
Firstly, few journalists on this assignment are likely to ever again report on executions of Australians abroad - and even fewer are experienced in the delicate editorial and ethical dilemmas this story throws up.
To understand those dilemmas, you need to know a little about the "Team Australia" outfit that's operating in Cilacap: the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has put together a committed band of consular officials based in the city. Their main duty is to care and support the anguished members of the Chan and Sukumaran families.
But the relatives, the DFAT team and the media all occupy the same hotel and gathering facts locally is difficult because there are obvious limits to journalistic inquiry within that "Team Australia" hotel.
When, for instance, is it appropriate to approach a Chan or Sukumaran family member for an "on the record" comment? Well, the answer is rarely because the perception that you're intruding is just too great to ignore.
And similar reserve is needed with most of the DFAT officials. Their media strategies are tested against one criterion only. That is: is there any risk that what they organise or provide could backfire and upset the Indonesian authorities, so making Chan and Sukumaran's predicament worse?
So the Australian media lives and operates around "Team Australia" but, ethically, they can never be part of it.
Also, while family members and government officials can choose out of loyalty or hope to defer serious thought about the executions, the media in Cilacap can't.
There are grim procedures to be read in Indonesian law about how the firing squads must work and reporters have also had to confront planning for the night in question: what to record and where they should be? And if a sight or sound was captured of the deadly moment, how might they use it?
It's uncomfortable work for anyone with a conscience and a sense of humanity. But Australian reporters will do it each day until the end is reached.
Cilacap is an employment hub for hundreds of foreign workers who trudge to and from its large cement and oil factories, refining products made of grey and black.
Now Australian reporters find themselves among those foreign workers too. We also churn out stories in dreary tones of grey and black. There's no alternative until this story is told.
In Cilacap, this is Greg Jennett for Correspondent's Report.
The full story...
Reporting on execution of Australian pair proves fraught with ethical problems
Greg Jennett reported this story on Sunday, March 15, 2015 07:05:00
Images
- Click an image to enlarge
