Live News - A Survival Guide - International Federation of Journalists

CHAPTER 6Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderBBC. However, there is evidence that some journalists are reluctantto use such a service because they fear damage to their careers.Any journalist who goes through counselling must be sure theywill not lose their job, miss out on key assignments or suffer lossof prestige because they admit to depression or nightmares. Anycounselling system for staff must therefore be confidential andshould allow journalists to refer themselves without having to gothrough a management structure. However, there may be a case fora more directed service when journalists are clearly suffering. It isimportant, also, that journalists learn to recognise symptoms ineach other, so that they can offer support and suggest intervention.Journalist organisations should press managements to ensurethat all journalists are offered an opportunity for confidentialcounselling after traumatic assignments. Journalists’ organisationsthemselves should consider setting up self-help groups wherejournalists who have covered conflict can talk through their experiences.Such groups must create a feeling of safety where what issaid in a meeting does not become the subject of gossip outside.The evidence is that there will be personal breakdowns or nearbreakdowns after a prolonged conflict. Employers must provide for‘no-stigma’ treatment for journalists with prolonged symptoms.Treating the mental wounds left by reporting on such issuesshould be no different from ensuring that a reporter who is shot inthe arm receives medical treatment before returning to work.The people most likely to miss out on any treatment on offer arefreelance journalists. Journalists’ organisations have a specific roleto play in ensuring that managements extend the same facilities tofreelance journalists and stringers after traumatic assignments asthey provide for their own staff. A service set up by a large mediaorganisation could also be made available to freelance journalistsat no charge to them, with the costs covered by media groupsjointly, or by journalists’ organisations.Quality of supportThe quality of support offered to journalists has been identified asan important issue. Journalists do not want their human reactionsto be ‘medicalised’ and, even when they want help, they are fearfulthat they will enter into a world of ‘psychobabble’. The peopleoffering counselling need to know about the pressures of journalismas well as about the horror of war and killings.David Loyn, a BBC reporter who sought counselling after seeing94