In a new book, former Media Prima Berhad group managing editor Ashraf Abdullah recounted how a TV3 camera crew was dispatched to cover then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to London.

When questioned by a British immigration officer at Heathrow, a cameraman in the crew who spoke little English was asked the purpose of his visit.

“Without missing a beat, he answered, with full confidence and not a flicker of irony: ‘I am here to shoot the prime minister,’” Ashraf wrote in Surviving the Newsroom.

There followed immediate pandemonium, he wrote.

According to Ashraf, a reporter standing beside the cameraman was captured on CCTV trying to signal for his hapless colleague to stop talking.

Both were detained, Ashraf said, and endured several hours of explaining, translating and damage control. Fortunately, neither one was deported, he added.

“But the cameraman was later advised sternly never to use the words ‘shoot’ and ‘prime minister’ in the same sentence again — never at airports or in an aircraft.”

But language is not the only thing that can leave a reporter red-faced. Sometimes it can also be technology.

In the book, Ashraf recalled how, on another occasion, a reporter — an ardent fan of Tamil rock — attended a press conference held by a menteri besar.

“As fate would have it, he did not have a fresh cassette for his tape recorder,” he wrote.

So, the reporter made a “noble sacrifice” by using a cassette from his “treasured music collection”.

However, instead of pressing the “record” and “play” buttons on the tape recorder simutaneously, as the technology of the time required, he only pressed “play”.

“The tape recorder, as you can guess, began blaring a Tamil rock anthem that could’ve raised the dead.

“The menteri besar jumped. Reporters froze. Bodyguards ready to pounce. Someone screamed.”

Surviving The Newsroom retails at RM34.90, excluding delivery charges.

Readers interested in purchasing the book can contact Ashraf Abdullah at 019-2812213.