DATELINE CYPRUS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200015-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: July 1, 1982
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798R000200200015-7
Date
ROUTING AND TRANSMITTAL S... 10 July 87
TO. (Name, office symbol, room number,
building, Agency/Post)
1.
Initi
Date
2.
C/MOD
3.
4.
ion
File
Note and Return
proval
For Clearance
Per Conversation
Requested
For Correction
Prepare Reply
irculate
For Your Information
See Me
mment
Investigate
Signature
Coordination
Justify
k -es Interesting developments in the
"monitoring" game here in Cyprus. With
more publicity like this we may be able to
get lost in the background.
Grp
DO NOT use this form as a RECORD of approvals, concurrences, disposals,
clearances, and similar actions
FROM: (Name, org. symbol, Agency/Post)
C/Nicosia
OPTIONAL FORM 41 (Rev. 7-76)
Prescribed by GSA
FPMR (41 CFR) 101-11.206
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/ v / cos44 C ' ' Q , C U S L/ F e J01 y / 1y '
Special Rod
DATELINE
CYPRUS
ZCZC CPJ
UU ACP FSO
:PROMETROWEST EXNICOSIA
CYPRUS FOR PLANET EXLAKES
PLEASE ONPASS TO DAILY PLANET
ATTN - LOU GRANT:
NICOSIA -- BEIRUT'S PROLONGED TUMBLE INTO CHAOS HAS REDUCED A CITY
THAT WAS ONCE THE CENTRE OF THE ARAB WORLD INTO A DANGER ZONE.
SINCE THE CIVIL WAR BEGAN IN 1975, BEIRUT HAS EXPERIENCED A STEADY
DECLINE IN STATURE AS PEOPLE, BUSINESSES AND MONEY HAVE FLED THE
DESTRUCTION WROUGHT BY RELENTLESS FACTIONAL FIGHTING AND
INVASION.
LEBANON WAS A MICROCOSM OF THE ARAB WORLD AND ITS
DESTRUCTION HAS COMMANDED THE ATTENTION OF WORLD POWERS AND
RAISED THE LEVEL OF INTERNATIONAL TENSION. ALMOST ANY EVENT IN
LEBANON WAS A HIGHLY NEWS WORTHY STORY, AND THE INTERNATIONAL
MEDIA WAS THERE IN FORCE TO COVER IT.
THEN THE UNDERGROUND GROUPS WHOSE REGULAR ACTIVITIES
INCLUDED CAR BOMBINGS AND AIRLINER HIGHJACKINGS CHANGED THEIR
TACTICS. THEY BEGAN TO KIDNAP FOREIGNERS AND DEMAND CONCESSIONS
FROM WESTERN GOVERNMENTS IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR RELEASE.
DIPLOMATS, EDUCATORS AND JOURNALISTS WERE THEIR TARGETS. BEIRUT
WAS NO LONGER SAFE FOR THOSE WHOSE JOB IT WAS TO REPORT ON ITS
DANGERS. A NEW MIDDLE EAST MEDIA HEADQUARTERS HAD TO BE FOUND.
THE CHOICE FOR MANY NEWS AGENCIES AND REPORTERS WAS CYPRUS.
MORE/GL
In July 1980, two British press correspond-
ents working in Beirut, Jim Muir and Tim Lle-
wellyn, received threats against their lives for
their reporting of events in Lebanon. The threat
was passed in Damascus by Syrian sources to
British diplomats who routed the message
through London and then on to the British em-
bassy in Beirut. Muir and Llewellyn experienced
an anxious wait of three days for Beirut airport
to reopen before they could catch a flight out of
Lebanon.
Little did the international press corps know at
the time that the experience of Muir and Llewel-
lyn was indicative of what was to come. By
March 16, 1985, the day Associated Press cor-
respondent Terry Anderson was kidnapped, the
foreign news agencies realised it was time to bail
out of Beirut. Their chosen alternative as new
operations centre was Cyprus.
Lying as it does 100 miles off the Levantine
coast, Cyprus, a Middle Eastern country with a
Western culture, democratic values, a stable go-
vernment and an excellent telecommunications
system was an obvious choice. Today, it is the
only place from where one can enter Beirut easi-
ly, via daily ferries to the Lebanese Christian-
controlled port of Jounieh, making reporting on
the perpetual strife in Lebanon still possible - for
those who are still interested and willing to take
the risk.
For some time, Cyprus has been the best tran-
sit route for Middle East correspondents who
cover events in both the Arab world and Israel.
Many news agencies, whether they be television
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peciut AMR
or press, and particularly the American ones,
keep their main bureaux in Jerusalem. To get
from Israel to Damascus, Baghdad or the Gulf
and vice versa, the easiest thing to do is change
planes in Cyprus.
During the 1980s, Cyprus has grown steadily
as a regional business and commercial centre,
offering a high quality of life and good telephone
and telex connections to those who chose to do
business from here. Now it has become the new
Middle East media base for some of the world's
largest news reporting organisations.
During this past year the Associated Press and
Agence France Press have established their
Middle East bureaux in Nicosia. Reuters, which
has split its Middle East bureau duties between
Cyprus and Bahrain, has significantly upgraded
its operations in Nicosia, but has yet to decide
how big its operations in Cyprus will be. Cypriot
sources have informed Cyprus Life that Reuters
has rented two full floors in the newly completed
Paraskevaides Foundation Building, much more
space than the present two Cyprus reporters, two
Lebanon reporters and two engineers need.
With exception to the Turkish military occu-
pation of the northern 40 per cent of the island
and the political problems that that creates, Cy-
prus is the eye in the Middle East hurricane and
is a logical and reasonably convenient spot from
which to cover the Middle East.
"It is at last starting to become a regional
centre," Muir told Cyprus Life. Since his arrival
on the island, Muir has worked out of his home
in Nicosia, reporting on Lebanon, the Gulf War
and occasionally Cyprus. He is best known for
his reports on BBC Radiorand those printed in
the Financial Times, Middle East International,
and the Middle East Economic Survey. Since the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon in.June 1982, Muir
has been able to return, via ferry, to Lebanon for
some on-site reporting, and now does so fre-
quently. For him, Cyprus has best served as a
location from which to monitor Arab radio
broadcasts.
"It's been a good base for me, but had I not
known Arabic it wouldn't have been," Muir
said. Llewellyn, meanwhile, will soon be seeing a
lot of time in Cyprus as the BBC's new Middle
East correspondent. He'll be replacing Gerald
Butt who will become BBC Jerusalem corres-
pondent.
Cyprus as an operations base began to appeal
to llcirut-hased publications as far back as 1976,
when the Lebanese Civil War was at its height.
One of the most significant early shifts out of
Beirut was made by Middle East Economic Sur-
vey (MEES), the authoritative oil newsletter.
"We had no choice," MEES Executive Editor
Ian Seymour told Cyprus Life. "We are weekly,
our business is by subscription, and we relied on
the mails. We missed several issues because of
the fighting and started mailing from Cyprus
before we moved here.
"In the beginning we thought we would just
come temporarily. I remember that AP and
Reuters came too when the airport (in Beirut)
closed for six months. But it soon became clear
that Cyprus was the best place to operate from,"
Seymour said. "What is missed here is a resident
1
Ian Seymour of MEES
community wrapped up in oil and banking that
was based in Beirut for area coverage."
If MEES were not based in Cyprus, Seymour
said, it would operate out of London, and that,
he added, would be a "much higher operational
cost." Some companies thought Athens would
be a good alternative, but Seymour disagrees,
"From what I've heard from people who moved
to Athens, it wasn't satisfactory at all."
MEES relies heavily on the telephone as a
means of acquiring its information from its nu-
merous contacts in the region and like most of
the other news organisations Cyprus Life talked
to are happy with the quality of service the Cy-
prus Telecommunications Authority provides.
Although CYTA places a 20 per cent surcharge
O ne crucial element Cyprus has to offer the
foreign press is no censorship and the freedom to
move about the island without restrictions.
Freedom to express one's opinion is a long-
standing tradition among Greeks and is strongly
practiced on the island. Although the local tele-
vision and radio station is government-owned,
the press is completely in private hands. There
are nine daily newspapers serving a total popula-
tion of under 700,000, plus several weekly tab-
loids and magazines. Anyone who can afford to
indulge in publishing in Cyprus is more or less
free to do so.
These circumstances make Cyprus all the
more attractive to the international press. There
are few other places in the region where journal-
ists are so free to operate.
Since the military coup in Turkey in October
1980, there have been numerous incidents there
in which local journalists have been imprisoned
for their reporting and newspapers closed. The
Turks are also highly sensitive about interna-
tional coverage of the Armenians or the Kurds,
whom they prefer to describe as 'Mountain
Turks.' Telecommunications can also be a prob-
lem.
In Syria, the media is government-owned and
the government can at times take offence at what
is said. Communications also leave something
to be desired. Jordan, too, lacks good communi-
cations and expects correspondents to impose
self-censorship, despite the government's West-
ern inclination.
Israelis difficult logistically, and correspond-
on all communications bills, Seymour and oth-
ers said they don't mind the surcharge too much
because the quality of the service is extremely
good.
"We have extensive personal contacts and
with this sort of communications base you can
do what we need to do on the phone," Seymour
said. His one displeasure is with the "abrupt"
increases in mail postage costs and hopes that a
more graduated system of determining postal
charges will someday be implemented.
Apart from the fact that journalists can live in
Cyprus without an acute fear of being kid-
napped, the communications system is the essen-
tial attraction.
"It's got the best communications of any
country I've ever been in," Cyprus Life was told
by Associated Press bureau chief Nick Ludding-
ton, who was one of the AP people to come to
Cyprus from Beirut in 1976. "They take good
care of us," Luddington said about CYTA. As
CYTA's third-largest subscriber, that's under-
standable. Luddington said that AP doesn't
mind the 20 per cent surcharge as long as it gets
the service it wants.
Like MEES, the one drawback AP faces is the
fact that Cyprus is not an Arab country. "We're
not able to do what we used to do in Beirut, there
are a limited amount of Arab sources here,"
Luddington said. But, he admitted, Beirut isn't
the best place either. "In terms of one Middle
ent reports are subject to censorship by the mil-
itary authorities. And, though you wouldn't
think so, Israel has some serious communica-
tions problems - not so much internationally as
internally.
While Cairo may offer the best alternative as
an Arab information centre, the communica-
tions and lifestyle problems its 12 million people
face knocks it out of the picture as a news-
gathering base. And while it does offer relative
press freedom, the Egyptian authorities have
been known to clamp down. One of Anwar
Sadat's most memorable last acts as president
was his appearance at a press conference waving
two confiscated NBC video tapes that had been
stopped at the airport.
Elsewhere in the Middle East the authorities
are just too sensitive. For them, the old adage
'No news is good news' is best -unless it's bad
news about a rival.
Political inclinations are not a problem in Cy-
prus. The only sore point in Cyprus is Turkey's
military invasion and occupation of the north.
Foreign reporters are free to report on Cyprus
and can cross into occupied territory after hav-
ing first notified the Press and Information Of-
fice that they intend to do so, but this doesn't
necessarily mean the Turks are happy to have
them. When a journalist reaches the Turkish
checkpoint he is required to state his business. If
he - or his passport - discloses the fact that he is a
journalist, chances are that he will be asked to
come back a few days later when someone from
the Turkish-Cypriot press office can accompany
him.
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Special Rod
East centre, you can't cover the Middle East
anymore." In view of the fact that all other
alternatives leave something to be desired, Cy-
prus is working out to be the best location, Arab
or not.
For AP, the last straw in Beirut was
Terry Anderson's kidnapping. "After that AP
decided to move Awciicaus out of Beirut,"
Luddington said. "Now, no non-Lebanese work
in Beirut for AP."
AP took the decision to move its Middle East
desk to Nicosia last August. It set up its new,
larger premises in November last year and Lud-
dington arrived on the island in January to over-
see its operations as a media base and corres-
pondent travel centre. About 12 correspondents
are working out of the Nicosia bureau, plus
another five or six working in other depart-
ments. And on the same premises is ANSA, the
Italian news agency, EFE, the Spanish news
agency and KYODO, the Japanese news agency.
The Nicosia dateline is becoming one of in-
creasing importance for AP. According to Lud-
dington, about 25 per cent of the agency's top ten
daily news stories are being filed from Nicosia.
This bureau is gathering news from everywhere
in the Middle East but Israel, and correspond-
ents and stringers from satellite offices in Beirut,
Amman, Bahrain and Cairo supply news copy to
the Nicosia office.
AP's Iran desk is in Nicosia and covered by
Scheherezade Faramarzi. She monitors Iran ra-
dio broadcasts and the wire service (received
through short-wave radio), and watches Iranian
television with the help of a satellite receiving_
dish. And due to-direct dialling Faramarzi is
rile-to get through to speak to people in Iran.
Good communications is also a main factor
for Agence France Presse coming to Cyprus.
"They are very good but very expensive," Sam-
my Ketz, the Frenchman who heads the AFP
bureau in Beirut, said about communications in
Cyprus. "If they would reduce this surcharge for
the press, then more and more would come
here."
Ketz, who will go back to Beirut, has come to
Cyprus to set up an office occupying a whole
floor in the new Barclays Bank building that will
accommodate 40 to 50 journalists working
shifts. So much electronic cable has been used in
their offices that the floor has had to be elevated.
In one corner a room has been left empty to
accommodate a huge computer that will be in-
stalled when and if AFP reaches some agreement
with the government about the surcharge on
communications bills.
Ketz said that because AFP considers the sur-
charge too expensive, it will have all its Middle
East correspondents file over lines running di-
rectly to Paris. The stories will then be trans-
ferred to the Nicosia office for editing. "If we
could get the surcharge removed, we would
make direct lines to Cyprus," he said.
Like AP, AFP decided last August to shift its
Middle East headquarters to Cyprus. The Arab-
ic desk will move to Nicosia from Cairo, and the
English and French Middle East desks will move
here from Paris. All of AFP's Middle East in-
Scheherezade Faramarzi tuning in to Teheran at her desk in Nicosia.
These events, tqo, attract international atten-
B oth the Press and Information Office tion, but, according to Psyllides, the Cypriot
(PIO) and the Cyprus Telecommunications Au- authorities hope that rather than sensationalis-
thority (CYTA) have welcomed the fact that ing an incident, the presence of so many repor-
Cyprus is apparently becoming the new Middle ters will mean that the facts in cases such as these
East media base. Obviously, this development is will be reported more accurately.
bringing a lot of money into the island due to the The government usually maintains a coopera-
services that news agencies and journalists re- tive attitude with the foreign press when events
quire, not to mention rents, family and home of international interest do arise. But it is only
expenses, car rentals and purchases, and enter- fair to guess that the government is concerned
tainment costs. But setting sheer financial gain about the growing numbers of foreign press
aside, this development could prove to mean a people here. Small incidents could easily get
lot more to Cyprus in the long run. worldwide coverage, and potential holiday-
First of all it qualifies CYTA's long-standing makers and business partners could jump to an
claim that the communications facilities on the unfavourable conclusion about Cyprus.
island are excellent. Cyprus has used its tele- Earlier this year the 'Waite Watching' (the
communications systems as a major selling point phrase used by journalists regarding their vigil
when attempting to attract offshore companies for Terry Waite) that took place at Larnaca air-
and banks to the island. Now it has the chance to port brought reporters from all over the world to
prove how good those facilities really are. And Cyprus. The PIO is considering setting up a
despite the government-imposed surcharge of 20 press room there, but CYTA has yet to study
per cent on communications bills, most agencies establishing a'voicecast centre' at the airport. It
and journalists are willing to pay without com- believes the facilities it provides already in the
plaining too loudly because the service is good. case of emergencies are satisfactory.
But this means that the services have to stay CYTA told Cyprus Life that the telecommuni-
good as demand, if anything, only increases. cations requirements made by foreign news
It also puts Cyprus closer to the eye of the agencies has been "quite extensive, covering the
international press. Although most reporters whole spectrum of telecommunications services
are here to cover events elsewhere, anything that - telephone, telex, facsimile, data transmission,
happens here concerning the Turkish occupa- private leased circuits, paging, and TV pro-
tion will attract their attention. The recent gramme transmissions."
women's march on the Green Line, which Muir So far, the following facilities have been re-
covered for BBC and which received photogra- quested: 23 telephone lines, eight telex lines, one
phic coverage in the International Herald Tribune telefax line, 69 working national lines and 112
via Reuters, is evidence of this. As Mr Kypros reserved national lines. In regard to internation-
Psyllides, Director of the PIO, told Cyprus Life, al circuits: three high speed data (9.6 Kbit/s),
"We very much rely on the international media two telegraph (50 Baud), and two radiotelegraph
for coverage of the Cyprus problem. Instead of (50 Baud).
us going to them, they have come to us. It will Temporary telephones and telexes, as well a$
definitely help to internationalise our problem occasional TV programme transmissions have
further." also been provided at times. At present, the
In the last two years Cyprus has seen several Satellite Earth Station 'Makarios' can handle
incidents involving highjackings and armed at- simultaneously four 'receive' and three 'trans-
tacks by Arabs against British base personnel. mit' TV programmes. /
formation from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Iran,,,
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peeiai neport
When a reporter is not working out of an
official bureau, he needs somewhere other than a
bar to go. In Cyprus there are two offshore
service companies that provide journalists with
all the tricks of the trade. They are MEMO
(Middle East Media Operations) which was es-
tablished in 1981 by veteran British journalist
Chris Drake, and the Levant Bureau, which is
run by Dutch journalist Hettie Lubberding.
Keith McCormick manages MEMO, which he
describes as a "coordination centre" for news
organisations that need someone to assist them
in covering events in the Middle East. It services
mostly the American and British news organisa-
tions.
"Cyprus is the perfect place for our particular
operation," McCormick said. "Foreign journal-
ists don't need any assistance in Cyprus since the
PIO takes care of all that. It's through the Mid-
dle East that we work, coordinating journalists'
activities there. So we use Cyprus as a base,
because of its excellent communications - and if
proof of that is needed, one has only to look at
the astronomical bills we pay for telephone, telex
and facsimile. We also have offices in Beirut and
the Gulf."
Among those agencies that look to MEMO for
assistance are Newsweek, NBC News, the BBC,
ABC Australia, US News and World Report, and
The Los Angeles Times.
The Levant Bureau takes care of numerous
Scandinavian and Dutch news agencies. Lud-
derding, who has been in Cyprus working as a
the Gulf and maybe Israel will move through its
Nicosia bureau. Ketz said that there is also a
chance that AFP's North Africa coverage may
shift to Cyprus as well.
The move by AFP is so huge that the French
embassy here has had to take measures to open a
French language school for children between the
journalist for eight years, has seen the place de-
velop, but she says it is the communications
facilities alone that make Cyprus a good media
base.
"In the way of facilities Cyprus has nothing
special to offer except the communications. It's
safe, it's easy to get connections. It's the only
place in the world where you can get to Beirut.
When the Terry Waite thing was going on at the
airport, the various crisis teams sent here by
news organisations were very impressed with the
facilities that the Cyprus government provided.
But there is no local story, nothing to keep a
major newspaper or TV station going. There's
no community that generates information, there
aren't enough embassies and there's no universi-
ty, research or good libraries. Everything is be-
ing made up for by the communications facili-
ties. Although as a base, it's perfect."
The Levant Bureau got its start in early 1982
by sharing office expenses with a Danish corres-
pondent. Now some of its regulars include Da-
gens Nyheter, a leading Swedish newspaper;
FLT, a Swedish news agency; Jyllandes Posten a
Danish newspaper; Asahi Shinbun, a leading
Japanese newspaper; SVT (Swedish television);
NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corpora-
tion; ITN, Britain's Independent Television
News; and, said Lubberding, "People from ever-
ywhere."
There are also a good many other correspond-
ents and agencies based in Cyprus. But not all
correspondents want to have their name in print
- unless it's in the form of a byline.
ages of 6 and 11 whose parents work for AFP.
For the first year there will be between 15 and
20 children," Ketz said, "and then more." Ketz
explained that without a school, AFP would be
faced with a very high turnover rate of corres-
pondents, with the exception of those who had
no children or were not married.
AP's Nick Luddington
Safety and freedom of movement has been
another prime consideration of those who chose
to work from Cyprus, whether they are individ-
uals or whole agencies. Cyprus offers a quality
of life that few countries in the region can match.
"If you're not going to work with bachelors,
Cyprus is better to live in than any other place in
the Middle East," Nick Luddington said. "It's a
very nice place to have a family. You have to be a
little less dependent on outside stimuli - it's not
as interesting as Cairo - but if you enjoy any
personal interest at all its a good place to be.
Both Muir and Seymour described Cyprus as
"a good place to come back to." And Muir, who
knows how stressful the job can be, likened it to
an "oasis of tranquility."
Even the best reporters like to put their feet up
now and then.
^
NICOSIA:
17, HEROES AVE.
P.O.BOX 4005
TEL. 456892 - 456813
INTERCOLIEGE
OF MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES
LIMASSOL:
DESPINAS PATTICHI ST.
P.O.BOX 6351
TEL. [phone], TLX. 4969
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PAGE 6 - July 3 - 9, 1987 THE CYPRUS WEEKLY . THE CYPRUS WEEKLY July 3 - 9, 1987 PAGE 7
Ile
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Cyprus- keeps an eye= and an ear on the Middle East countries
Leading
the world
ofnews
ASSOCIATED Press of
America, whose Nicosia
office has recently been ref-
urbished at the cost of sever-
al hundred thousand dollars,
with the latest electronics
V. Us and teleprinfing equip-
ment, rightfully claim to load
in I he news agency business.
Thousands of corre-
spot, dents. reporters, string -
ers. photographers and TV
crews are on duty 24 hours a
day feeding information of
popes, presidents and
princes to ever-h u ngry
public.
Says Middle East News
Editor, Ed Blanc he, who has
been Chas, ng stories for over
a quarter of century. 'I can
remember the very erratic
Morse casts in the Far East
and now we have instantane-
ous filing across the globe.
Depending on coding. we
have a story such as 'hos-
tages re~eased' around the
w. rid I n es s than a minute "
This is because when we
made the decision to set up
an agency in Cyprus, we
literally pulled out all the
stops and made the complete
'Ove.-
Critical
-When the structure of
Lebanese coverage became
rnlic .1
be,. zcl Beirut itself
' oreandmorecon-
me
cerned with the Lebanon sto-
ry we 'malty accepted the
inevitable a nd had to evacu-
ate because we had no cen-
tral point." says Blanche.
The Nicosia office
began building up in June
,as, year and by August it was
funcl
ironing with a regular
service " The move. in
volume of news handled. has
been totally justified, says
Blanche, noijustintermsof
quant I ty but in the quality of
the final edited product."
Once again Nicosia was
the ' best bet". Like many
other news agencies. Asso-
ciated Press I ound that
Cyprus provided 'proximity,
communications, ru,~ine's
and accessibility from 0 e
Middle East areas. 'We had
used Nicosia over the years
as Beirut slowly became
unten able and we had an
operation already in place
here on which to build."
~ There plans to
i, 1,
,,tend I he areremelyi effi-
cient te evision monitor ng of
Middle Eat stations currently
carried out by the Nicosia
office. Associated Press
Cre the first to monitor Iran
'evision from Cyprus,
',T,his has enhanced the
coverage of events in Iran
where at present itis notpos-
sible to have a bureau.
Coverage has increased
many times through the
presentation and analysis of
TV and radio broadcasts
from Iran.
Many stories
"Bearing in mind that
APs whole function in com-
Ing here is not to cover
Cyprus. but to cove' theMid-
die East, staff includes Farsi
speakers as well as Greek
Cypriots. says Blanche. "And
we have written a lot of sto-
ries that nobody else has
written mainly because this
is what we are set up to do.
AP, like any other good wire
service tries to be as objec-
tive as possible, but we are a
marketplace orgenisation
and we took for a United
States angle It there Is one to
be found. However, we quote
the official side where It's Val-
id and relevant but we look
oil round the story also.
"One thing aboveall else
has taken place with the
move." says Ed, "at one time
a lot of editors were reluctant
to consider a N icosia date-
line on a Middle East story.
When mor, It the foreign
journalist Beirut, they
went eitht nmanorCai-
ro. Assocmied Press has
established Nicosia as a Mid-
dle East dateline.
IT has been said
that the Island of
Cyprus is like a
giant shell reflect-
ing all the sounds
of the Mediterrane-
an Sea and coun-
The island of Cyprus,
especially Nicosia, now
holds more reporters,
scribes, journalists -call
them what you like - than at
any time since the Turkish
Invasion. Despatches go
from Cyprus or through
AFP opens up
THE Importance at Cyprus
as the Ideal offshore agency
headquarters was emplai
allied by Xavier Baron, dedi-
cated French journalist and
Middle East Chef cle Bureau
for Agence France Presse,
otherwise AFP, the French
news agency.
Settling in at his new
headquarters in Nicosia and
surrounded by electronics at
various stages of assembly,
he says -AFP` is one of the
world's leading news agen-
cies. We chose Cyprus as a
base because it has the three
things we need to operate: It
is stable, you can come here
with your family; the telec-
ommunications are good
and there is no government
interference-you can get on
with your work without cen-
sorship. Without these three
we cannot work.
11111`0-_
offiffiff-
He should know what he
is talking about. He was in
Cyprus in 72 and again in 74
as a working journalist. He
came back again over six
months ago.
He continues. -So now
we are putting together bul-
letins in French, English and
Arabic and technically we
have already started -
AFPwiIl haves staffof 40
plus when up to full strength
avd expand the hours of ser-
vice as necessary.
Five more personnel
:rrived in Nicosia yesterday
nd staff is being steadily
built up.
Like other news agen-
cies AFP has a large majority
of TV, Radio and newspaper
executives on its controlling
board back in Paris.
It-1
Xavier Baron, chief of
Bureau AFP, Nicosia,
There is also SUrprisi n
ly, a representative of the
Prime Minister of Franc
another from the Depar=
of information, Lii
major news agencie
deal of revenue comes -from
non-news subscribers, big
business and diplomatic
offices. More than hall AFP 3
subscribers are non-media
companies with some 46%
being foreign and domestic
newspapers and journals.
AFP computers and oth-
er electronic equipment is
among the most modern of
its kind. 'Anything else
would be a waste," says Bar-
on. "you have to keep up with
or ahead of, the competition,
When there Is something
new one has to buy it if only
to increase rapirly of trans-
mission because all Middle
East COPY is going through
the N icosia bureau including
Israel and Libya Here it is
edited ' background is added.
corrections made and for-
warded, keeping its own
source dateline.
So you see we have to
have experienced agency
Personnel. And thes, -,e are
bringing in. We ar ing
out of about 120 nes
and the number u, AP
bureaux is expanding all the
time.
tries of the Middle
East.
Modern coommunke-
tions, computers, satel-
fitels, teleprinters,
thermotax and word pro-
cessing units have revoill
flontsed the news and
Information gathering
business and for b~ or
worse, Cyprus has
become a major listening
post, receiving, adiffroy
and distribution post
feeding the rest of the
world with news, views
and backgrounds on thi?
A bureau for
Cyprus every day, 365 days a
year and 24 hours a day.
What makes the island
so special that it should be
almost spontaneously chos-
en as the listening post for
the highl Y sensitive Middle
Eas t bureaux?
Heine Lubberding of the
Levant Bureau N;cosia.
w ht Ch covers the MIdd e East
through six European writers
with strong Dutch and
Scandinavian connections
says
In the beginning we
started up with a M ilitary
and Strategic Defence
new s letter. It was 25pagesof
well-researched, strategic
material and very successful
- too successful in fact We
just could not keep up with
the administrative side of the
work. so it was reluctantly
closed
I We then started Lip the
bureau and we were joined
by a correspondent for a
Danish newspaper which has
staffers all over the world.
Then we were lo-,ed by other
writers who work for Swiss.
Swedish. German arid Aus-
trian newspapers and radio
stations Hellyherself writes
[or TV and radio stations in
the UK and The Netherlands
Two of them are staf-
fers, she adds, the others
International network
RO E -based ANSA. five
of., ~.n News Agency was set
-p "' 19 5. after the sham-
bles of World War 11 ' when
a ran newspapers were
being reconstructed. on a
cooperative basis. Its main
markets are the Italian press
and the Latin America media
Says Middle East editor,
Alberto Piazza, There is no
Italian newspaper, no jour-
nal. no publication in this
field, which does not take the
ANSA service,
no-P"11411,116 oloororloo I*Wl
We also have many
clients in industry and in oth-
er OffiCesoulsicle thelournal-
IsfiC market he says These
are now linked with us He
served for several years in
Latin America, Venezuela.
before being transferred first
to the Lebanon and latterly to
Nicosia.
We have a newscast in
Spanish reaching Latin
American countries 24 hours
a day from Mexico to Argen-
I na, the main office for this
being in Buenos Aires We
also have another newscast
in Portuguese, he adds.
Apint h(,ru 1h,,su w_u,.
also newscasting 1. Ill..
appo,op,rat,, awas F,,~uch
and English over An,? and
Asia In this we are a truly
Ill I ernahoiial news agency
and very big. with audiences
covering many m0lions
ANSA,, I I u1n,,. ,,
C,~;,:, by i
llurn~ is I I bo ~'nj "I
mangem udir, a clueclo,
general Its full title Ayenzi;j
Nazionale Stampa Associala
makes up the acronyru
ANSA, so familiar to eduor~
. We have more than 3L)O
full time writers working for
ANSA ' says Alberto Piazza,
who has been a journalist for
more than 25 years He was
one of the last editors to
leave Beirut and chose Cy-
Pro's because not only was it
safer. but it is the Centre of a
very good communications
network So it became our
head office for the Arabic
Middle East
The held of coverage is a
wide one, ranging from the
day to day stories, Politicians
stars and Popes to special-
ised background material on
space travel, technology,
paintings. auctions and an-
tiques, finance and engineer-
ing. There is also a lull
photographic service-the
European Press Photo Un-
ion.
peort of the world.
So fast is the speed of
Cominnunication that the
whole nature of reportin
,h,
has c anged. Midnighgt
dashes to the cable office
WW handsome bribes to hall
Porters and cable clerks are
things of the past.
THEworld's largesland most
authoritative news agencies
have now moved into the is-
land bringing with them hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars
worth of information gather-
ing equipment.
bureaux
4 to Ilitcliluces willing under
Ittielor.own names. The bureau
:Iself is funded by the writers
hermselves and by their com-
plantilis in Europe.
'Here in Cyprus we have
& good listening post. As a
journalist, my experience is
thoid the people who work
her we perfectly happy with
this, Proviso that you do
noill have as many Arab con-
tacit here as you would like.
"There is no university
here. no Arab study Centre
and hardly any embassies.
You have to 90 to Cairo or
Athern for some visas and
this is not very convenient.
On the other hand, you can
switch on the radio and all
1 1%
France Press (Ill Asso-
clated Press of America, U.
nited Press International,
ANSA of Italy, KYODO ofin.
pan, the Levant Bureau, and
Reuters who In a few weeks
will be expanding to cover a
much wldor area In the Mid-
die, East.
And where do they go vshen the story writing Is donell.
There Is even a "News" Pub outside the agency offic
0
the Middle East is there.
English and Arabic lan-
guage bulletins are waiting. it
you know how to listen to
them. I can pick up the tele-
phone and dial straight into
Lebanon orolher neighbour-
my countries and I get so
many requests for contacts
[rum Holland when they can-
not get through to Middle
East callers.
"In this sense Cyprus is a
very good listening post.
There are also people who
come in from time to time to
use the facilities in theirwork
and we would like to see
more and more of them".
'Cyprus is an extremely
convenient base. Peoplewho
The brass plallis proves
that even the Japanese
are here
travel to of her countries ar
very happy to come back
here and relax and write their
features and slowly unwind.
A Iho, lounfl. wn,.u you ju,,
based here as a Middle East
journalist the authoritiesgive
you every kind of help and
assistance Forexamp dur-
ing the Terry Waite k!edn.p
ping we had perfect
cooperation from the con-
cerned officials.
"Cyprus is. I would say,
an ideal base for the working
journalist, but it does need to
Provide more Arab contacts
as often you need to know
the background to what is
going on in those countries.
'Once editors would not
accept 'Dateline Nicosia'as a
Middle East dateline but
things are changing very rap-
idly and it is fast becoming
one". she concluded.
Two chiefs In one office: David Zenlan (left) UPI's top
IMatiderdItehisEamploontxhperHt,ellesabvetisnognr*trpoinsfeedrbtoy pealshrlUgleorn
don, right, as Middle East chisill.
Relaying news home
United Press Interna-
tional is perhaps known
more widely in domestic
United States than overseas,
but says Peter Smerdon, who
came here from Lebanon
when the Middle East focus
shifted from Beruit to Nico-
sia. "from here We cover
Lebanon, hall of Iraq. Syria
Cyprus isionvaluable for us" - Reuters
WHFNEVER news agencies
are rro~.fioned the first name
loCometo most layman stops
is Reuters. which although
having its main office at 85
Flev Street. the one time
street of Ink* in London. is a
truly ruleinational agency
with 1.037 journalists. pho-
tographers and cameramen
scattered around the world
Says Thomas ODwyer.
ex RAF pilot and dedicated
Middle East journalist, now
Cyprus Bureau chief. Reu-
lers is the leading world news
a" information organis -
lion. obtaining its inform: -
twor, from 113 securities and
cornmodilies exchanges and
from 2.721 market subscrib-
claims to be among the ol-
dest in the business. There
was even a Hollywood movie
featuring Edward G Robin-
son as Or Reuter introducing
pigeons to carry messages
from the Continent to the
City merchants in London.
Invaluable
'We have found Cyprus
invaluable," O'Dwyer says.
*Because foreigners are not
allowed to go to West Beirut
anymore. we do Middle East
reporting from here. We have
Lebanese correspondents
reporting from West Beirut.
They file their stories on our
computer system.
Cyprus has become ex-
tremely important since the
media has withdrawn from
West Beirut: we have always
had a Cyprus stringer, in fact
I myself was the last stringer
here. In April 1984 1 was of-
fered a job on the staff and
tasked with opening the first
office in the island as Bureau
chief.
One staff
-Initially it was just one
person and a telephone, but
within a month I had hired
Katherine McElroy, our Cy-
prus corespondent. A year
r 4
later we moved offices to ex-
pand and cater for theevacu-
ation from Beirut. At the
moment we have nine people
here including two engineers
who took after the complicat-
ed electronics which have re-
volutionised the business of
newsgathering and report-
ing.
"This includes an infor-
mation data base service to
offshore companies and fi-
nancial information pack-
ages.
"And we always source
our opinions. They can be
bankers' opinions diplomats'
opinions. or tourist industry
opinions but we balance
them. The business of a news
agency is to report the facts
and the views of the country
as seen by the people of that
country.
Advantage
"Reuters presents a bal-
anced view and makes sure
all these views get across. It's
the reader who makes the
decisions on what we write-
not us.
"From the viewpoint of
Middle East reporting, the
one advantage of Nicosia is
that you can easily monitor
Arab radios although we just
back up Lebanon from here.
As for the future, there is
no way back for Cyprus as a
communication Contra.
Apart from Egypt it is the
only country that has both an
Israeli Embassy and a PLO
office.
Nicosia has now become
accepted as a dateline for
Arab stories and from next
month R uters' new Middle
East regi:un manager will be
based in Nicosia. His respon-
sibility will be for four coun-
tries, Lebanon. Syria, Jordan
and Cyprus.
and Jordan.
"We receive the Iraqi
News Agency here and
though stories like the Cult
War are covered mainly from
Athens, we cover the Iraq
side from Cyprus.
"Cyprus is well posi-
tioned for this kind of cover-
age, It has no internal
problems which interfere
with your work; communica-
tion: :re good, air connec-
tion re fine and generally
there is no stress. You can
get on w ith your work.
"I left West Beirut in
April last year and though I
would much rather cover the
Lebanon on the spot f can
adapt here. We might con-
ceivably move back. This
kind of move has happened
before in March '82 we shift-
ed here and then moved
back. In fact UPI still has
Lebanese staffers in Beirut."
United Press Interna-
tional has been engaged in
changing its image and sev-
ral new ideasare-in the pipe-
line". Many of these are, for
business reasons. still under
wraps, but will be revealed
before the end of the year.
9W
Andreas
Pantiazis
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/29: CIA-RDP94-00798ROO0200200015-7