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TV OUT!

Cut to a live transmission of Nelson Mandela's visit to Amsterdam:

"Cameras to the side! To the side! Sit down! Down!"

A cheerful band from Surinam is swinging along on the balcony of the Stadtschouwburg while a crowd is waiting for Nelson Mandela. He is supposed to talk to the 15,000 citizens of Amsterdam gathered together here. However, the musicians were hidden, since a throng of (white) cameramen had grouped directly in front of them. This irritated the crowd. When the message came that the "king of Africa" had entered the building, the media converged on the microphone in the middle of the balcony. The crowd realised that it would also not get to see Mandela and started to revolt. Spontaneously, cries of "cameras to the side" gave way to furious yells like "TV OUT!" [...]

The journalists realised that it wouldn't take too much longer until the first stones hit their portable high tech equipment and beat a hasty retreat out of a one and a half metre wide demediatized zone.

Then the king in exile appeared in the press free zone and looked around for a long time [...] and then made his way through the cameras [...] Unlike pop musicians, football teams, queens and politicians, who use the masses for public relations purposes, Mandela didn't immediately head for the microphone, but took time to greet the crowd. He also pushed aside the media in favour of the event. Suddenly, it became absolutely quiet [...]

After half an hour, Mandela ended his talk with the words: "We respect you, we thank you and above all, we love you."

We had never heard this out of the media.

(Agentur BILWET: Medienarchiv, P.143)