Safety of Journalists Covering Trauma and Distress: ‘Do no Harm’
Quick Overview
Paris: UNESCO (2022), 16 pp.
CC BY-SA
"• Pressure has intensified on journalists to cover people’s trauma and distress and deliver emotionally-driven content to multiple platforms.
• Impact on survivors: An ongoing lack of trauma-aware training for journalists can lead to inept or ill-informed handling of survivors, some say this added to their trauma and felt ‘furious,’ ‘hurt’ and ‘demoralised.’
• Impact on journalists: Direct or secondary trauma may be induced by exposure to potentially traumatic events and reporting on the people affected.
• Recent stressors: A rise in toxic online attacks on female journalists; Covering Covid 19 prompts ‘mental health crisis’ and ‘financial peril.’
• Driven to deliver big and breaking stories in an increasingly competitive market, journalists may pressure survivors, unaware of or ignoring editorial guidance and codes of conduct." (Key trends)
• Impact on survivors: An ongoing lack of trauma-aware training for journalists can lead to inept or ill-informed handling of survivors, some say this added to their trauma and felt ‘furious,’ ‘hurt’ and ‘demoralised.’
• Impact on journalists: Direct or secondary trauma may be induced by exposure to potentially traumatic events and reporting on the people affected.
• Recent stressors: A rise in toxic online attacks on female journalists; Covering Covid 19 prompts ‘mental health crisis’ and ‘financial peril.’
• Driven to deliver big and breaking stories in an increasingly competitive market, journalists may pressure survivors, unaware of or ignoring editorial guidance and codes of conduct." (Key trends)
Covering trauma and distress: Impact of trauma reporting, 1
Trauma-aware journalists. Trauma awareness: The challenges, 2
Codes, ethics and guidelines: Principles and ethics, Reporting suicide, Case study: sexual violence, 6
Survivors: good practice. Sensitive interviews and interactions; Case study: reporting on refugees, 9
Journalists can hurt too: Direct and indirect trauma exposure, Self-protection, 12
Trauma Reporting: Gender-sensitive lens. Reporting violence against women and girls, 15
Recommendations, 16
Trauma-aware journalists. Trauma awareness: The challenges, 2
Codes, ethics and guidelines: Principles and ethics, Reporting suicide, Case study: sexual violence, 6
Survivors: good practice. Sensitive interviews and interactions; Case study: reporting on refugees, 9
Journalists can hurt too: Direct and indirect trauma exposure, Self-protection, 12
Trauma Reporting: Gender-sensitive lens. Reporting violence against women and girls, 15
Recommendations, 16
