Media guidelines for Disaster Reporting Part 4
By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation
The Disaster Beat reporters have their work cut out:
In late winter as the cold wave starts receding, beat reporters can
start scrutinising:
if the authorities / nodal agencies and departments have identified vulnerable populations; made arrangements for protection of the vulnerable population in heat waves (including information dissemination for prevention, anointment of shelters, food and civil supplies, medical preparedness.
Interview the identified vulnerable population and publish / broadcast their fears and apprehensions, needs etc… which may invite corporate sponsorship of disaster mitigation (often the vulnerable population are those who cannot afford to lose a day’s wages and toil in the harsh sunlight in places prone to heat wave). Reporters also need to scrutinise if tax payers’ funding is being used appropriately.
Similarly beat reporters need to scrutinise in late summer if nodal agencies are prepared for monsoons – this can include investigative reporting on maintenance of water weirs, plugging of leaking sewage infrastructure, and clearance of encroachments, clearance of silt in reservoirs and dams, if targets for watershed management like soil conservation, agro forestry, check dam construction rain water harvesting etc have been met. Talk to identified vulnerable population and voice their apprehensions in print.
Beat reporters can also research thoroughly geological issues like El Nino, Climate Change, etc and try and document near term and long term impacts of the past occurrence / events.
In preparation for winter months similarly Beat reporters have to scrutinise preparedness by talking to identified vulnerable populations, check preparatory infrastructure, document preparedness measures and so on.
The Fourth Estate must publicise missing persons’ registry to help reunite missing survivors of calamities. It is much more significant than emotional stories aimed at higher TRP ratings on Television.
In between reporters have to cultivate researchers and scientists, research on issues and publish stories related to triggers and causes for natural disasters in a planned and structured series. If this module can be replicated by trained reporters in every district level newspaper / magazine publication portal radio and Television channel in all 604 districts of India, the Press would have played out its responsible role in disaster mitigation.
Beat reporters must also cultivate trust of the scientific community to learn about forecasting early warning, and must responsibly disseminate the inputs through all media – print, photo stock, social media, web portals, radio and Television in real time. Infact in this regard former vice chairman of India’s National Disaster Management Authority Shashidhar Reddy told the author in an exclusive interview in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand flash floods of June 2013 “If there is a specific warning all broadcasters regardless of them being private or public broadcaster should interrupt normal programming to disseminate the early warning / forecasts. This protocol must be developed and put in place”.
In this regard New Zealand’s Civil Defence department has put in place a best practice. Memoranda of Understanding (http://civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/publications/TV-MoU-Dec06.pdf and http://civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/publications/Radio-MoU-october-2013.pdf) are drawn up with all Media in the public and private sector to make it obligatory for broadcasters to disseminate early warning during emergencies. Such best practices should be universalised in the interest of disaster mitigation.
At the risk of repeating it is copied here again from chapter 3: “Circumventing safety instructions, breach of laws, lowering standards in administration of all spheres of economic and human activities are recipes for man-made disasters. These are what cause building collapses. We have suffered building collapses in monsoon every year in Mumbai and the New Year 2014 celebrations in Goa were quickly overshadowed with a building collapse”. These are typical disasters that an alert Media ought to incessantly report about. Granted it is a fine line highlighting the larger picture for a national audience, but editors’ competence lies in editing copy that serves the interest of local and national readers / audience as well as public interest and scrutinising polity.
In the decade since the Asian Tsunami the Media has matured a great deal indeed and there is barely a day that goes by on World Service Broadcasting channels without reportage of one or another type of either natural or man-made disaster.
Infact the Kosi River flood of August 2008 certainly bears no repetition. It seems the lessons have thankfully been learnt. Preventive evacuation of twenty thousand people living downstream of the Kosi river have been evacuated since 2nd August 2014 as preparatory measures after a landslide in upstream of Kosi in Nepal on Friday 1st August 2014. http://sandrp.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/massive-landslide-blocks-sunkoshi-river-downstreamnepal-india-under-threat/
The Press / Fourth Estate may not have played the pivotal role to take credit for this, but public documentation helps infinitely in dissemination. Constructive multimedia dissemination is vital:
Both NDMA and NDRF in India have been releasing Press Releases every couple of hours during recent disasters like the Cyclone Phailin and Pune Landslide, Chennai Building Collapse, Orissa floods of July 2014 etc. This has certainly helped Beat reporters and thereby information dissemination.
The hourly bulletins from PRO Cell in NDRF and NDMA got so confusing on Monday 4h August 2014 when the PROs’ offices were issuing releases about both Pune landslide and preventive evacuation in Kosi floods simultaneously, that the PRO Cell of NDRF issued a note saying 114 bodies were recovered in Pune. Immediately Manish Kumar and Anasuya Roy of NDTV issued rejoinders saying the 114 dead bodies recovered were from Bihar, not Pune. It was a big and expensive mistake committed by PRO NDRF. We are awaiting clarification from PRO NDRF. The clarification from PRO of NDRF did not come. It was an expensive mistake.
The Mumbai urban flood of 26th July 2005 was a man-made disaster waiting to happen. The urban floods occurred due to blockage of storm water drains and encroachment of open spaces meant to drain rainwater. Torrential rains exacerbated the problem. The main trigger for the flood was the torrential rain of 994 mm (39.1 inches). While torrential rainfall within a 24 hour period was the primary cause for the disaster that claimed 5000 lives the recipe for the disaster in the making was largely ignored. Encroachment did not happen overnight. If the Media had reported in the years before the Mumbai flood the scale of encroachment and the dangerous consequences thereof, maybe … just maybe the disaster could have been prevented or atleast reduced in impact? At the same time it is essential to avoid sensationalism.
“Sensationalism must be avoided at all costs. When earth shaking events like mega earthquake and tsunami or a volcanic eruption happens it is easier to sensationalise things by unnecessarily accentuating some aspects” says Dr. Dr. Arun Bapat Seismological consultant.
In June 2014 for example the Times of India reported that magma flow was discovered in a remote village in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh in India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Volcano-like-eruption-in-Himachal-Pradesh/articleshow/36116427.cms
This report was commendable in that it highlighted the fact that Media is now proactive in reporting on causes for natural calamities - Earth Sciences and is making an attempt to widen the news net as it were. Credible sources have been quoted in the article. If a whole new volcanic site is emerging in an otherwise seismically active area it is obviously something earth shaking. However if this magma chamber increases its potency and lives and livelihoods are at risk, who then will pay the price for ignoring this alarmist news report? When the Media makes a credible claim to early warning it should obviously not be taken lightly. On the other hand Media Moguls need to curb sensationalism too.
The best practise as is mentioned in the report is to follow up with the scientific community for any leads on early warning of an imminent seismic event in a whole new place for geological activity.
But it had not been picked up in the national Media. That means one of two things: Either the National Media satraps have dismissed the credibility of this report or the authorities have dismissed the report of magmatic activity in Himachal Pradesh as sensational. In the view of this author, it was a case of an over enthusiastic junior reporter who was lost in an exaggerated sense of forecast of an unrelated, imagined event.
It emerged that what looked like subterranean magma was actually “molten soil” caused by melting of electric poles and the electricity supply discharged from the wires to the soil. Dr. Arun Bapat seismological consultant in Pune commented in detail:
“Such so called 'volcanoes' occur in our country periodically. I have read the news carefully and found it to be a result of so called investigating journalism and totally lacks understanding on the part of Geological Survey of India.
“During Feb 2005 when I was in Andaman I got a telephone call from Gujarat Government informing that a volcano has erupted in Rajkot District. The press gave disproportionately amplified coverage saying that after earthquake, Gujarat would be hit by Volcano. Before reaching Ahmedabad I told them to get tested the so called volcanic samples. The tests and a learned professor told that it was a case of recent volcanism. I reached Rajkot and the village Chibhada. The Sabhapati of Gram Panchayat and large population reached the site. They showed me the 'mouth of volcano which was just seven cms in diameter. I saw it and found that there was high tension electric cable of 11 kV. The cable had several joints. I immediately inferred that it was the case of 'bijli chori' or pilferage of power supply. The villagers were tapping electricity by fixing hooks. When such acts are performed the diameter of the cable reduces and it breaks. When the wire breaks and falls on the ground, the rock / soil melts.
The Palanpur (HP) incidence reports that an electric pole turned hot. When heat reaches ground the rock (here it is a fractured and fragile rock) melts. The size of the so called magmatic melt is hardly 10 to 15 cms. There was similar case in Pune district about two years back. There are about four cases of the so called 'volcanic eruptions' within 20 km pf Kudankulam Atomic Project. The opponents of the nuclear power plant have sent their report and were saying 'proof; of volcanoes’. Dr. Bapat continues … Reporters writing about disasters “are courteous, gentle and good at conversation. But most of them ask irrelevant questions as directed by their Head Office”.
Without any knowledge of disasters, reporting on such issues would be twice as dangerous. Hypothetically speaking if there had been an ignorant stringer / reporter in Campbell Bay the day of the Asian Tsunami and had he / she asked the incumbent assistant commissioner - who had ordered all bottled water in the Island to be brought to the residence of the Assistant Commissioner – as to why this had been done, the tragicomic situation would have lampooned itself in the copy the next day!
“Facing foolish questions from uninformed reporters is very challenging for disaster managers. They should have some good knowledge of the disasters;” Dr. Bapat adds. Secondly “the competition amongst TV Reporters is much too disgusting;” Dr. Bapat added in an exclusive interview to the author. I must add that it is not always the reporter who is foolish… What about this ignoramus of a public servant in Campbell Bay who could only think of his survival in Campbell Bay that day?
Dr. Bapat continues…”Training is also necessary for disaster reporters. For example they often come up with wrong usage of the term. I have often been asked by reporters that there was an earthquake in many places. What they mean is the tremors were felt in many places. The reporters do not use this precise phrase “the tremors were felt in many places”. Instead they say ‘earthquake happened in so many places’ which is wrong. It is important for reporters to know and use the precise technical terms and phrases”.
Typhoons batter East Asia from July to October every year. The monsoon months around the Indian Ocean pummel the IOC rim states from April to October. El Nino Southern Oscillation once every few years leave the agricultural community pell-mell in the IOC Rim countries. El Nino Southern Oscillation has other consequences like bleak fishing, fish kills / fish deaths, currents changing course, accentuated weather related hazards like droughts and floods, as well as washed out winters and summers. With enough empowerment in the form of knowledge we can anticipate the weather patterns and prepare literally for a rainy day. Hence the significance of informed Media personnel cannot be overemphasised.
Mr. Murali Kunduru of Plan India, an NGO working in Disaster Mitigation made available to this author exclusively guidelines drawn up for Media professionals reporting on children in Disasters.
It is not easy for even a seasoned reporter to be abreast of global scale of developments in all aspects of earth sciences. Thousands of journalists have dedicated their skills and attention to climate change issues which is the single largest challenge confronting humanity on a global scale in today’s wired world. Sifting through the contexts itself is a task..
For the local impacts of climate change to be juxtaposed for a global readership / TV audience is not easy either in terms of research / reportage / management. It emphasises the need for training and refresher courses for Media personnel and Administrators.
Mr. Ray Kancharla of Children’s SOS says while reporting about children afflicted by disasters, it is essential to protect the privacy and other rights of children. For example, he says never portray a child as a singular object in a picture.
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