The Press Institute of India (PII) and the Red Cross recently felicitated three journalists for their distinctive contribution in conflict reporting.
The winners of the second edition of the Award for Reporting on People Caught in Situations of Armed Conflicts — Debabrata Mohanty of The Indian Express, Kavitha Muralidharan of The Week and Janasakshi’s M M Rahman — shared insights about conflict-related coverage.
Mohanty, who had reported on the Kandhamal violence in Orissa explained:
“Reporting in a riot-torn place is always difficult. With rumours taking over facts, driving down at night to Phulbani, the headquarters of Kandhamal, to file my reports, I used to be scared.”
Conflict reporting in essence is risky business. It can take its toll on journalists, who are witnesses to acts of violence.
Reporters who’ve been in these situtations are known to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders.
Anthony Feinstein, a psychiatrist of South African extract, and the author of Dangerous Lives: War and the Men and Women Who Report It researched war journalists.
He recently talked of his study on Nieman Reports (Harvard):
140 war journalists were assessed for the presence of these disorders. Results were compared with data obtained from 107 domestic journalists who had never seen combat. Significant differences between the groups were found. This was not surprising, with the war journalists endorsing many more symptoms across all domains. Notable, however, was the high lifetime rates of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorders) and major depression in the war journalists’ group: They were four to five times those found in the general population and more than double those in traumatized policemen. These lifetime rates among these journalists approached those recorded in combat veterans. Alcohol consumption, but not illicit drug use, was also markedly increased in the war journalists. An important observation was that journalists who had PTSD and major depression were not receiving the necessary treatment.
Grim?
Non-conflict reporting isn’t easy either.
This young woman passed out on live television as she delivered her segment of the news bulletin.
Stress? Possibly.
Speaking of live TV, Asylum recently compiled a list of videos of TV correspondents caught in tricky situations.
For instance, a passer-by pinches this reporter’s backside as she deliveres her lines. But displaying great professionalism, she continues talking without batting an eyelid.
Check out the whole compilation.
We end this post on a light note with this now-legendary, extremely hilarious and must-watch video of Pakistani journalist Chand Nawab of Indus News trying desperately hard to deliver a P2C on time. (Careful: foul language inside).
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Nice compilation of videos. It was great reading about correspondents covering war/conflict-torn area. However, one thing I’d say about the pinch video is that it must have taken some patience for the reporter to carry on after the man acted funny. You find such creeps just about everywhere and I don’t know if it is right to just let them go like that…
Indeed, reporting in conflict-stricken areas is a very difficult job. Thanks to these reporters journalism is still considered a serious business.
To say that war and conflict areas are populated by creeps will be inaccurate. Those concerned may be just doing their jobs… effective journalism is all about winning psyches and getting ahead with news acquisition. Simple.
hilarious, the one about the journo’s ass being pinched :)