Press reporters on both sides of the Kosovo conflict have been castigated for not toeing the party line. In times of conflict, reporting the facts can be an unwelcome stance. During times of war, the press corps is fed an unremitting diet of half-truths and one-sided optimism. The real truth takes second place to the desire to foster public support.
Without public support, governments are unable to pursue their goals as vigorously as they feel necessary. Neither democratic nor dictatorial regimes appreciate the distraction of concerted opposition. The inevitable consequence is an unbalanced picture of unqualified success bolstered by a reluctance to admit to unwelcome facts.
Similar scenarios are not unknown in the commercial world. Companies need to nurture stakeholder support in the same way governments need to engender and maintain public support.
But the rules of engagement in the commercial world are more relaxed than in the military arena. Attempts by the press to uncover the reasons for missed targets or disclose shifts in strategy are not condemned as unpatriotic. Equally, press reports of unsolved problems or internal conflicts do not automatically cause stakeholders to abandon faith.
Mobile communications for civil applications should fall firmly into the commercial arena. And most of the time it does. When problems occur, as they inevitably do, representatives of mobile communications companies mostly behave maturely in their dealings with the press. They do not voluntarily proffer information about negative developments, of course. But neither do they lie nor refuse to answer direct questions. They treat the press as responsible individuals. In return they expect, and usually receive, informed and balanced coverage.
Rogue reports containing ill-informed or irresponsible comment are relatively rare in the mobile communications trade press.
Sometimes, however, the system apparently breaks down. There are times when a consensus of opinion exists across the trade press that may not be entirely accurate or justified.
Iridium could be a case in point. The phenomenal achievement of creating the world’s first truly global mobile communications system has been greeted with scorn and skepticism by the trade press and much of the analyst community. Not just by a few individuals but pretty well uniformly across the board.
Valid questions have been raised about the viability of Iridium’s commercial strategy. These doubts were compounded by the highly visible problem of unavailability of handsets at the apparently delayed launch of commercial service on 1 November 1998. In fact, this launch date was eight weeks ahead of schedule. The decision to launch before handset supply and distribution problems had been sorted out was probably influenced by Iridium’s funding arrangements and the desire to maintain stakeholder confidence. It also earned Iridium’s suppliers large incentive bonuses for early delivery.
The trade press was not impressed. Alleged technical problems with the handsets and the undeniable issue of handset unavailability dominated the press coverage. The trade press was not just unsympathetic to Iridium’s teething problems, but often antagonistic. Many reports openly expressed their frustration at Iridium’s refusal to even acknowledge the existence of teething troubles, let alone answer reasonable questions surrounding the commercial rollout of the Iridium service.
Other sectors of the communications industry have escaped their military origins and adopted an open and responsible relationship with the press, just as the communications industry itself has embraced the concept of open systems. But Iridium does not seem to subscribe to the unspoken pact of mutual respect, and this has caused genuine concern and frustration amongst the trade press, reflected in the resultant press coverage.
Until Iridium abandons its attitude of evangelistic zeal and problem-denial, it will not get the press coverage it deserves.
Maybe Iridium doesn’t care. Its competitors have long claimed that there is a hidden agenda. The ability to switch signals in the sky, bypassing all terrestrial systems, makes Iridium an ideal global communications capability for security organizations. Perhaps we are involved with a military scenario after all.
