We are a group of journalists, photographers, editors and subeditors who have a combined industry experience of 320 years. We are writing to ask your assistance in fostering the resilience of news workers to handle the trauma and violence we face in our daily work.

A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to such trauma and violence can have a detrimental effect, not only on news workers’ own wellbeing, but also upon their ability to do their jobs to their full capacity.

More and more news organisations around the world are recognising the benefits of taking a systematic approach to supporting staff to cope with the exposure to trauma that their jobs often entail. These benefits include increased productivity, better journalism and fulfilment of employers’ legal obligations to provide duty of care.

We work for a broad cross-section of Australian news organisations. Those in our group have covered — and in some cases, witnessed first-hand — wars, mass murders, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, coronial and criminal court cases, countless car crashes, child abuse and other harrowing events.

Most of us survive these ordeals through personal resilience and a profound belief in the meaning and importance of our work.

Even so, the most bullet-proof of professionals can be profoundly affected at times by their stories, and the evidence is clear that this is normal and human. This is no ‘weak link’ in the newsroom. In fact, it can assist in great reporting.

A small percentage of us do not survive. We personally know of many colleagues who have left journalism because of a breakdown of that resilience, leading to a crippling inability to continue in the work. Others remain in the industry but suffer other effects of long-term exposure to trauma: difficulty coping with work demands, breakdown of personal relationships and chronic health problems, for example. Expert trauma counsellors tell us that these outcomes are almost always avoidable through early intervention and adequate support. Instead, many of our colleagues feel isolated and victimised, unaware that their feelings are common results of their direct experiences and can be relatively easily treated.

We welcome steps many news organisations have made in developing Employee Assistance Programs to help staff at crisis point.  But more could be done to help those staff avoid reaching such crisis points.

Through our affiliation with the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, an internationally-acclaimed organisation, we would like to help your organisation provide:

• All news workers with information and training in basic self-care techniques that would help them maintain resilience.
• News editors and chiefs-of-staff with information to help them identify colleagues at risk of developing symptoms and instigate strategies to protect that worker from long-term harm, thus fulfilling their obligations of duty-of-care.
• Simple information explaining trauma and its effects to assist journalists, photographers and camera operators in their interviews with people affected by traumatic events, leading to more powerful stories. Such information and training is standard practice for other first responders, such as emergency service workers, but has not yet become standard practice in the media.

We are not promoting “soft” journalism. Nor are we suggesting news organisations refrain from covering death and disaster. Instead, we are advocating smarter journalism, informed by self-understanding and compassion towards interview subjects.

This letter was written as a result of a weekend discussion in March 2007 at Coffs Harbour, facilitated by the Dart Centre Australasia. It involved the following journalists and photographers and is endorsed by them all:

South Australia
Jessica Adamson, Reporter, Channel Seven Adelaide

Victoria
Brett McLeod, Reporter, Channel Nine
Bill Pheasant, Deputy Editor, Opinion and Editorial, Australian Financial Review
Gary Tippet, Senior Writer, Sunday Age, Dart Ochberg Fellow
Kimina Lyall, author and former foreign correspondent

Queensland
Trina McLellan, subeditor and journalism educator, Courier-Mail
Sharon Marshall, Reporter, Channel Ten
Rob Maccoll, Photographer, Courier-Mail

Australian Capital Territory

Philip Williams, Presenter, Stateline, ABC, Dart Ochberg Fellow

Tasmania

Leigh Winburn, Photographer/Pictorial Editor, The Mercury
 

New South Wales

Andrew Meares, Photographer, Sydney Morning Herald
Lisa Millar, Reporter, ABC
Suzanne Smith, Reporter/Producer, Lateline, ABC
Melissa Sweet, freelance journalist and author, Dart Ochberg Fellow
Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma

Cait McMahon, Director, Dart Centre Australasia
Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director, Dart Center USA