By Allison Shelley
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RISC training program: Participants,
including journalist James Foley, far left, prepare for a first aid drill using
a mannequin during the RISC hostile environment first aid program for freelance
journalists at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York. Giuliana Mackler /
Bronx Documentary Center
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James
Foley and Steven Sotloff, the two journalists recently beheaded on video by
members of the militant group Islamic State, had a number of things in common.
They both cared deeply about the Middle East and believed that stories from the
region needed telling. They were intelligent and brave. And they were both
freelancers.
Reporting
on the world has become far more dangerous for journalists in recent years, in
part because so many more of us are freelance.
And freelancers, including those on regular “stringing”
contracts, almost never have the same support that staffers do. They don't have
the security guards, safe housing, well-paid fixers and expert logistical help
from their institutions, and those things can make all the difference.
Some wonderful organizations have
sprung up to try to help, but there's only so much they can do. I met Foley,
for example, in a training program known as Reporters Instructed in Saving
Colleagues, which was established to teach independent journalists how to
handle life-threatening emergencies.
I've now been to three of these kinds of
trainings, and I hate every moment of them. They are full of simulation drills
that involve kidnapping, blindfolds and profanity, knife-wielding actors with
gruesome injuries, staged car accidents, suicide bombers, smoke bombs, an
immense sound system and fake blood. Lots of fake blood.
The impetus for RISC — offered free of
charge — came directly from the heart of writer Sebastian Junger, in response
to the death of his close friend Tim Hetherington, who was hit by shrapnel
while documenting the conflict in Libya. Hetherington bled to death as his
colleagues tried to get him to a hospital. None had been trained in tourniquets
and pressure points.
I have taken each course as an
opportunity to drill those skills into my muscle memory, in the desperate hope
that if I am ever required to respond in the field, calm, cool reason and
physical reflex will kick in.
Even though I greatly respect the kind
of reporting Foley and Sotloff did, I turn down assignments that might put me
near flying bullets. I cover global health issues.
But the fact is that covering the
world's critical issues and problems means going to dangerous places, whether
covering health or war. And when you're thousands of miles from the culture you
know best, small misunderstandings have the potential to escalate into perilous
situations quickly.
Several years ago, for example, while I
was reporting on a cholera outbreak near my then-base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
a group of stone-wielding villagers tried to drag me and my motorcycle driver
away because they thought we were deliberately bringing the infection to them.
The man who negotiated our freedom was himself beaten, robbed, stripped and
nearly killed.
But who would have had my back if I had
been kidnapped?
The reason magazines, newspapers and
broadcast outlets rely on freelancers is that it's cheaper. And it's cheaper
because they don't have the same obligation to independent reporters that they
would to their own staffs. It's time for more of us to start saying no to bad
terms.
Two weeks ago I was offered an
assignment by a well-respected news organization to cover the Ebola outbreak in
Sierra Leone. We met to discuss story shapes, a timeline and a plan for how to
avoid contamination.
At the end of the meeting I asked about an emergency
medical evacuation protocol, just in case we reached that terrible moment. “We
can't put anything in writing,” was the response from the editor. “Our company
policy doesn't cover freelancers.” I turned down the assignment.
I often wonder if what I'm doing is worth
the risk and the stress it causes my family. But then I imagine what it would
be like if there were no journalists reporting on, say, Ebola — no trusted news
sources explaining the reach of the disease and its effects on communities.
Lack of information can lead to paranoia, anger and, ultimately, in the case of
a disease such as Ebola, to a worse epidemic.
To date, two of my RISC classmates have
died in the course of journalistic assignments they took on as freelancers. In
both cases, the publications tried to do right by them after trouble struck. In
the case of writer Matthew Power, who collapsed and died in Uganda, Men's
Journal paid for the expenses related to his death and for the repatriation of
his remains when the travel insurance he had taken out on his own turned out to
have a typo that invalidated his coverage.
When Foley went missing, Global Post
initiated a multimillion-dollar search for him, personally supervised by
company Chief Executive Philip Balboni. But they didn't have to. Both journalists
were working without pre-travel agreements that spelled out emergency or
medical support.
If news outlets want in-depth stories
from the world's trouble spots, and if they are going to continue outsourcing
the reporting for those stories, they need to start talking to their lawyers
and insurance companies to extend the liability umbrella.
They need to make
sure that the journalists they rely on have medical coverage while abroad, and
that they fill the gaps — covering them for medical evacuation if necessary.
And they need to do everything they can to ensure journalists' safety in
advance of trouble.
Media outlets need to treat the safety
of freelancers as they would the safety of their staff members. Because
increasingly, we're all they've got.
Allison Shelley is an independent
documentary photographer and multimedia journalist who covers global health and
social justice issues worldwide.
Source: http://www.latimes.com
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