Foreign media members on Sunday said they accepted an order by Thai authorities to move out of area outside the Tham Luang cave as evacuation of the footballers begins.
Foreign media are being evacuated four
kilometres from the cave to ensure clear access. Journalists will be
housed at the Tambon Pong Pha Administrative Organisation Office on
Phaholyothin Road.
The 12 teens and their football coach assistant have been trapped in the
flooded cave since June 23, with experts from international allies
joining with Thais to rescue the team in a race against water and time.
Local and international media have converged at the cave to keep the world up-to-date with the latest developments.
Six days after the footballers were found safe deep in the cave network
last Monday, authorities on Sunday launched the evacuation operation to
bring them out.
Spanish television reporter Biel Calderon said he didn't mind the
request that media move out of the way of officials and rescuers during
the high-risk extraction.
Calderon agreed that a large group of media could harm the efficiency of
the rescue operation and cause delays. He said he understood that there
were reasons for such a request in the life-and-death situation and
media needed to respect it.
Russian TV reporter Andrey Pashin, who had been covering the story
for the past four days from the cave entrance, said he felt positive
about the authorities regulating the large number of media in the
vicinity to ensure the rescuers are not blocked.
He hoped that, without a continuing media presence in the area,
officials could work more efficiently and more quickly rescue the
trapped youths.
Pashin said he wasn't much worried much getting film for his news
coverage, because he believed that officials were working to address the
issue. He hoped that the Thai authorities would ensure all media have
equal access to information and pictures and that any news and images
obtained by journalists would be pooled and shared among all other media
workers.
The Thai authorities on Saturday began limiting the media’s access at
the front of the cave, but some journalists had ventured under the rope
fence to report the news.
This led to an official order being issued at 7am on Sunday to reclaim
the area outside cave. Media members, along with volunteers and
officials not vital to the rescue efforts, were to be cleared from and
kept way from the area by 9am.
Many reporters negotiated to remain, while others moved as ordered to
crowd the Tambon Pong Pha Administrative Organisation Office area.
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