Thursday, August 30, 2007 So: Journalists and disaster stories By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
FOR the past three days at Park Lane Hotel in Cebu City, 18 print journalists from all over Visayas had gathered to set up guidelines on how to report stories about disasters and emergencies where children are involved.
Given the inadequacy of resources and training of many community journalists, reportage of disasters occurring in their place often comes out anemic, bloated, prejudicial or offensive to sensibilities. This is not intentional on their part but simply a manifestation of their limitations. That is why big news organizations send out their own reportorial team to the area of disaster and not rely on the local journalists to give them reports.
The print journalists who participated in the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) seminar-workshop on reporting on children in the face of disasters looked back on how they had been covering disaster stories and resolved to learn from their mistakes. Many of them come from regions that had been struck with disasters.
One highlight of the workshop was the reportorial focus given to the rescue and response but not to the rehabilitation of the community in the aftermath of the disaster. If not ignored, rehab and survival stories are relegated to the inside pages with one-column treatment. The editors among the participants defended their call by saying that other bigger and fresher stories fight for Page 1 accommodation.
That journalists set the guidelines for themselves in covering disaster stories involving children is noteworthy. Topping the list of recommendations was the need to respect the privacy and identity of children in disasters or any negative situation for that matter. No names, no identifying information such as names of parents, school and home address, no frontal shots. The argument that the faces can be pixelized or eyes covered no longer holds.
The journalists also recommended that interviews with children should be made in the presence of their parents or a social worker and with their consent. Children may tell the truth of their suffering but cannot discern what’s right and what’s not and how their statements can have negative consequences on them or those around them.
Another recommendation was for journalists to avoid disrupting and interfering in rescue and disaster response operations when getting the story.
Dogged by deadlines and questions from editors, the journalist can be insensitive to the needs and priorities of other people just to get the story.
That’s why the disaster coordinating council puts up information and press centers in the area to accommodate inquiries from journalists.
The participants also recommended a debriefing of journalists after covering a disaster or emergency. The sight of bodies and destruction can be traumatic. It’s not fun to cover a disaster, ask any journalist who was there at Guinsaugon, Leyte or Ormoc City.
Another recommendation was for editors to rotate the disaster assignment among reporters “to avoid trauma and other psychological effects of regularly covering these events.” Editors pull out a team member from the coverage at his or her request or as necessary.
All these recommendations and those culled from the workshops in Luzon and Mindanao will be collated by the PPI and Unicef to come up with the guidelines for reporting disasters, the first in the country.
