Text and photo: Major Michael Christiansen, SPAO DATG

The media often present facts about events to military commanders, which the commanders have no knowledge about. This is the reality in a high tech world, where the media in most cases have better means of communication than the military.

Media Operations is an important part of every military operation. Also for DANEX 07 even though it is “only” an exercise. The Danish Task Group has issued guidelines for contact with the media including which statements to make.

Journalist Jan Schelbech and  photographer Jan Knudsen from the  Defence Media Center.

There are three primary target groups for the media contact: The international society, the aggressive government in Vendia and the country’s population and of course the government and citizens of Islandia. All of these are fictional countries in the exercise.

Media Operations also handles media visits on board the ships. The exercise part includes a simulated press team that under the command of Captain Kim Vibe Mortensen visits the ships with a camera crew and interviews key personnel on board.

Operations officer on THETIS,  Lieutenant Commander Brian Larsen,  got the opportunity to try a  professional interview during the  exercise.

– Two camera crews participate in DANEX 07. One from the Defence Media Center and one from the Army Operational Command. Their task is not to check the crew’s  ability to handle an interview situation, but to train them. The two camera crews will first give a briefing to the interview-persons and then do two interviews with immediate feedback, says journalist Jan Schelbech from the Media Center.

The team from the Media Center also use their visits on the ships to produce features to the web based media channel “Forsvarskanalen”. So far two features about the Norvegian Fast Attack Crafts from 22nd Squadron and a number of features from the command ship THETIS have been produced. Features are planned from the british ship ALBION and the SSR-company from the Home Guard.