Live News - A Survival Guide - International Federation of Journalists

Live News — A Survival Guide for Journalistsmuch as control group men, while women war journalists drankfive times as much as control group women.◆ There was an increased use of recreational drugs amongst thewar journalists.◆ There was significantly more depression amongst war journaliststhan in the control group, and war journalists also ratedthemselves as having greater social dysfunction.Dr Feinstein and his team concluded that journalists who regularlyreport from conflict zones have a greater than one in fourchance of suffering from PTSD over the course of a lifetime. That ismore than twice the incidence in police officers and only slightlyless than military combat veterans.Dr Feinstein accepts that most of those who report from conflictareas do not suffer long-term problems. He says: “Our study wasnot an attempt to pathologise an industry. Three quarters of thejournalists I surveyed did not have psychological difficulties. Themajority go off to war for a 15-year period and generally end updoing OK.”But he warns that those with problems often fail to receive treatment.“In some of the journalists, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ischronic. It hasn’t got any better, and they’re very unhappy as aresult of it. Their depression may be quite intractable, and depressioncarries with it a significant morbidity — it affects your qualityof life. It also has a significant mortality, in that it is the one conditionwithin psychiatry that has the highest suicide rate — 15%. Inmany of the journalists, the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder wasbeing missed, and they were not getting treatment. The depressionand the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can affect families in termsof quality of life and physical well-being.”Reporting conflict in your own countryDr Feinstein’s research focused on international correspondents.There has been no equivalent research on journalists reporting intheir own or neighbouring communities. There is every reason tobelieve that the stress would be significantly greater for such journalists,and this is backed by anecdotal evidence.One of the best attended post-conflict media conferences in theBalkans was organised by the Media Diversity Institute and Vijestidaily newspaper at Igalo, Montenegro, in September 2001. After theNATO bombing of Serbia and the conflict in Kosovo, journalists91