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How to cover disasters and at the same time stay safe was the main theme of the course provided by Richard Meares, a Thomson Reuters Foundation trainer, and Thomas Atkins, Reuters chief banking correspondent.
Arkadia, an imaginary country of extremes, occupied the minds of 12 journalists from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Chechnya, who gathered in the Armenian capital Yerevan from December 2-6 for a Thomson Reuters Foundation course on Reporting Crises and Disasters.
For the whole week, we covered developments in the non-existent disaster-prone land, torn by earthquakes, draught, insurgency and pandemics.
Journalists are responsible for telling the world what has happened when a disaster strikes. The story is what you make it and sometimes an incompetent reporter can make things even worse, instead of helping those affected by the disaster and presenting the situation to the public.
How to cover disasters and at the same time stay safe was the main theme of the course provided by Richard Meares, a Thomson Reuters Foundation trainer, and Thomas Atkins, Reuters chief banking correspondent, whose professionalism and creativity made the process extraordinary and exciting.
“Few of the journalists on our Yerevan course had done much breaking news before. Few had experience in covering disasters. We threw them in at the deep end, and on the whole they quickly learned to swim,” said Meares.
“What I’d say to the group is: If you have to cover a fast-moving disaster tomorrow, you’ll do really well – but what if it’s five years from now?
“The key, as with first aid or other useful skills that one might rarely need, is regularly to revise and refresh what you’ve learned to stop it fading away. And a great way to do that is come up with creative story ideas about disasters elsewhere that provide local angles relevant to your audience.”
Basics of journalism, types of disasters, news judgment, networking, safety and logistics, interviewing and working with sources, avoiding myths & clichés as well as cooperation with aid groups were discussed and consolidated through practical exercises.
“We discovered an energetic group of journalists who were open to new ideas and eager to learn. We cram as much experience as we can into the five days – everything from ethics to breaking news,” Atkins said.
The training date was not chosen accidentally. On December 7, Armenia marked the 25th anniversary of a devastating earthquake which killed 25,000 people, injured 19, 000 and left up to 500,000 homeless.
Scientists say the magnitude 7 earthquake and its 191 aftershocks occurred along a fault line that begins in the Kars region of eastern Turkey, goes through the Armenian city of Stepanavan, and ends at Lake Sevan, northeast of Yerevan.
The area that experienced the 1988 earthquake is on the boundary between the Arabian and the Eurasian tectonic plates. An estimated 90 to 95 percent of the world's quakes occur where such plates meet, their friction releasing pent-up energy. As a result severe earthquakes have plagued the Caucasus region for thousands of years: an earthquake in 893 A.D. took an estimated 20,000 lives; another in 1667 killed 80,000 people.
People can’t prevent a natural disaster, but they can mitigate its consequences by correct actions.
Government officials, representatives of international organisations and journalists discussed preparedness for such risks at a two-day conference in Yerevan on December 3 and 4 entitled “Public Awareness as a Cornerstone for Disaster Risk Reduction” – and our training course ran alongside it.
The deputy head of rescue services at Armenia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, Nikolay Grigoryan, told the meeting about the mistakes that then-Soviet Armenia had made back in 1988 and the lessons it had learned. Later he came to speak at our course and stressed the need for emotional balance while reporting.
Journalism is one of the most dangerous professions in the world. The International Federation of Journalists says that in 2012, 121 journalists and media workers were killed because of their work, with the conflict in Syria making it one of the bloodiest recent years.
Nevertheless, journalists risk their lives to give the world a clear picture of what is going on in the deadliest places on earth…
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