Chris Cramer, president of CNN International and honorary chair of Newscoverage Unlimited at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, was briefly held hostage in 1980, while working for the BBC, during a terrorist attack on a London embassy. He spoke with German journalist Gerti Schoen on December 4.
Gerti Schoen: Why is the topic of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) more urgent than ever?
Chris Cramer: The events of September 11th have produced a huge number of reporters that were confronted with horrors that their war correspondents colleagues have been confronted for years. My personal view is that we have a new group of people called urban war correspondents who may well be affected by what they cover, and as employers we should understand that.
Did the war in Afghanistan gain new dimensions in that respect?
The war in Afghanistan may well draw a new line here in terms of danger. My view is that the media generally have taken a long time to wake up to the fact that they might be affected by what they cover. Last week the New York police department instructed all of its staff to undergo counseling. Here we have a police force that understands that people could be affected by unpleasant events. There is now a real revolution among the media in America and overseas and Britain who are beginning to understand very slowly that employers should provide voluntary services for their staff and you don't have to behave in a macho way. You don't have to cover 10 wars and go back and take drugs or drink yourself to death. The army, the navy, the air force accepted this years ago and responded in a much more intelligent way. But you know that this issue is very controversial, and there are many people who believe I am talking garbage.
CNN has developed guidelines for people covering wars. What do they look like?
CNN as well as the BBC and a few other media organizations have guidelines for operating in hostile areas and we have guidelines when it comes to the likelihood by being affected by PTSD. We don't deploy people to war zones unless they have been to hostile environment courses, which are freely available in Europe and America. We make sure that our people travel in armored vehicles. We moved these vehicles into Afghanistan. Other things are protective clothing — that means helmets, goggles. That equipment has been used for some time now. And the journalists understand that we don't expect them to take unnecessary risks, that no story is worth getting killed for and that it's always possible to go down a road the next day.
What are those courses in hostile environments like?
Certain organizations design the course with the media. They simulate war conditions — you being taken hostage, you being attacked and shelled. They simulate the type of conditions you might find yourself being blindfolded, being thrown in the back of a car. These are scary courses and very real and they saved a lot of journalists' lives over the years.
Should there also be guidelines for regular disaster and police reporters?
It is possible to be affected by fires or accidents. Police and fire brigades routinely offer debriefing. As far as journalists are concerned, it depends on the individual how much you are affected. You may be affected even by a court case that involves a serial killer — it is not unusual to be affected just by sitting in court. We have voluntary confidential courses and if you want to use them, then use them. Don't feel you are a wimp or weak, we understand that this may happen to you. We provide counseling services for staff and their families.
You are trying to implement a Charter for the Protection of Journalists. What does that mean?
This is an initiative by the Freedom Forum and the Rory Peck Trust. Journalists are becoming targets. That is not right and we should have an international debate that should send out strong signals to governments, that targeting journalists simply must stop. They have a very special significance and targeting them for political reasons is unacceptable.
