NATO Media Information Centre

Every NATO Media Information Centre (NMIC) differs slightly from its predecessors, but they all work to the same concept. To tell the world about what we are doing and why we are doing it. The NMIC for Steadfast Defender 21 will have a lot of geography to cover. It will support activities off the coast of Portugal, in Germany, Bulgaria and Romania. It will develop over time adding capabilities and people as the exercise develops. The primary aim of the NMIC is to co-ordinate those doing the exercise or operation and the members of the media who wish to follow those activities. In the past, media interest in military and NATO activities varied. The level of interest in Steadfast Defender is yet to be established and given the impact of COVID the ability of the media to cover the activities is not as assured as we’d like. Therefore, and in line with many other organisations, we are prepared to tell our own stories, direct via Digital and Social media to those that want to hear from us, and hopefully a few that didn’t know they wanted too.

Another reason why we seek to tell our own stories is actually because of COVID. The restrictions in place safeguard us all and one way of reducing the risk is the formation of protective bubbles. By embedding our story telling teams with the soldiers we reduce the risk to them and the soldiers whose stories we seek to tell. It is not a new thing for an NMIC to do, but the proportion of embeds verses non-embeds presents some unique challenges and opportunities for the NMIC team.

The opportunities offered by embedding are considerable. Our teams will live side-by-side with the soldiers they will cover. They will work, rest and play alongside them and capture them as they live. They will have a ringside seat in the development of the exercise, they will witness the excitement, the mundane, the highs and lows and the drama and adventure of deploying as NATO forces on missions to safeguard our security and stability. Our teams will be best placed to tell the stories of one aircraft carrier battle group operating alongside allied naval ships, vividly demonstrating the strength of the transatlantic bond in the Atlantic Ocean. They will witness the Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC) HQ orchestrate a logistical feat of moving and massing NATO's combat power from the Atlantic coast of Europe to an eastern trouble spot. And finally, our teams will capture the deployment of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) and its supporting units in a unique and intimate way. The exercise will culminate in a live Fire Power Demonstration in Romania, which for us in the NMIC, will be the finale of the exercise. But in true NATO spirit, the work continues; Some units will return home, whilst others will join Exercise Defender Europe led by the US Army in Europe in a significant demonstration of capability and commitment to the Defence of Europe.