I don't want to be involved in endless media gossip.

Up until about 12 years ago we never, ever, wore flak jacket or helmets but now the nastiness has got worse.

People always seem to assume that we have a full, back-up support team - make-up, costume and a driver - but usually, in a war zone, there's only me and the cameraman.

I was timid and frightened as a child. Yours truly did not shin up mountains or do any other kind of adventurous stuff.

I have nothing to do with the selection of stories. I'm the reporter.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

I have never been attracted to any kind of violence.