Sky News

"I've been shot at more times than I can remember": Stuart Ramsay looks back on 30 years of frontline journalism

The Ukrainian government had been warning of Russian saboteurs infiltrating the country and attacking civilians in their cars as they fled. And so, apprehensive but with one eye still on the story, camera operator Richie Mockler started rolling.

Even now his footage makes for terrifying viewing. It begins with an ambiguous bang, before the team quickly realise they are being ambushed. Despite the hail of gunfire, they somehow all make it out alive, but not without Mockler and Ramsay both taking bullets.

The reinvention of war coverage

Pitching, in person and in Russian, at the Kremlin for an interview with President Putin was not something I ever imagined myself doing, even in the weird and wonderful world of TV news. 

I was working for NBC News at the time, leading its digital operation and, having studied Russian, I was asked to join the delegation to request a ­one-on-one interview between the President and our lead anchor. 

TV Diary: Sky News' John Ryley

John Ryley (credit: Sky)

The accuracy of the fire was surprising,” was the laconic observation of Sky News camera operator Richie Mockler. He was explaining what happened when gunmen, thought to be a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance squad, ambushed Sky’s chief corres­pondent Stuart Ramsay and his team. They were driving in a rented Hyundai saloon car on a major road from Bucha to Kyiv, about 20 minutes from the centre of the capital.

Nominations announced for the RTS Television Journalism Awards 2022

Hosted by journalist and presenter Cathy Newman, the prestigious awards will take place on Wednesday 23 February 2022 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London and will celebrate creative and excellent journalism for both news and current affairs.

Julie Etchingham: From news junkie to news anchor

News­readers are necessarily calm and rarely ruffled. Until, in the case of ITV News heavyweight Julie Etchingham, they get to interview their teen hero, Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. “I was so flummoxed – I’d been such a teenage fan that I couldn’t actually get a sentence out. I made a complete fool of myself,” she admitted.  

Etchingham, who was talking at an RTS Devon and Cornwall event in November, went on to identify general election leaders’ debates as her most terrifying on-screen experiences. The worst was her first, the unprecedented seven-way debate in 2015.  

Fake News: The Broadcasters’ Dilemma | RTS Cambridge Convention 2021

An expert panel, routinely faced with decisions about how to cover fake news, considers the pitfalls, the ethics and the psychology behind one of the most insidious disrupters in the modern world.

Chair

Naga Munchetty, Journalist and Presenter, BBC Breakfast

Speakers

Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision Making Lab, University of Cambridge

Matthew Price, Editor, Data and Forensics Unit, Sky News