Exceptional AP all-formats live coverage showed how the deadly trade this year in migrant crossings of the treacherous English Channel didn’t miss a beat even after a boat ripped apart and sank, killing 12 people. Hours after that sinking, the AP video and photo team of Mark Carlson and Nicolas Garriga scoured the coastline based on tips from sources and spotted another boat setting off heavily laden from northern France with what appeared to be dozens of migrants aboard. As they broadcast their exclusive images live, John Leicester worked his contacts to secure the vital confirmation from French authorities that what AP was broadcasting was, indeed, another attempted migrant crossing. That confirmation enabled AP clients to use the images and report with confidence that what they were showing was the people-smuggling trade continuing unabated, despite the previous day’s disaster. As Carlson and Garriga filmed for more than two hours, Leicester file a Newsalert and worked the phones. His reporting found that gray vessels seen shadowing the migrant boat in AP’s video and photos were French police patrol boats watching to see whether the second boat would also sink. Leicester also exclusively obtained a statement to AP from French maritime authorities explaining why they weren’t forcing the boat back to shore. And Garriga and Carlson obtained an exclusive interview with the mayor of the town in which he pleaded for French and British authorities for help.
AP’s footage scooped British media and national French news agency AFP. AP’s text included details that no others obtained. The video edits from northern France drew more than 1,000 hits on Teletrax from dozens of customers.
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