Reporting disaster

October 23, 2005

The media capacities have been drastically reduced in the quake-hot zones, triggering a general absence of local media voices informing the world at large about their regions

By Adnan Rehmat (Internews Pakistan Country Director)

The devastating October 8, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan has killed over 50,000, injured more than 70,000 and displaced around four million people, leaving in its wake a traumatised nation and the urgent need for post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.

Along with schools, hospitals, courts, banks and government offices and private homes, media has also been a major casualty with dozens of journalists killed or missing and newspaper offices, broadcast houses and press clubs destroyed. Some of the severer hits taken by the media are in Azad Kashmir and North West Frontier Province. The outcome of this is significant reduction in capacity of local media, adversely affecting information access and processing systems in these regions.

To fill in the gap, the national media community is struggling to respond adequately to the tragedy: reaching victims with vital information about humanitarian response, and informing citizens and policymakers about the nature and scale of the earthquake and the progress of the relief effort.

While the significance of the media in informing the average citizen and the policymakers of the massive quake in real time cannot be over-emphasised in a country where native private electronic mass media is a relatively new phenomenon and where government resources in accessing information on a large scale on an urgent basis is limited, there are shortcomings.

Capacity issues are one — the disaster is spread over a wide area populated by people speaking different languages — and specialised skills, such as post-disaster reporting encompassing research, reach and relevance, another. It does not help that the media capacities have been drastically reduced in the quake-hot zones, triggering a general absence of local media voices informing the world at large about their regions.

State of post-quake media in AJK

The building housing AJK TV and AJK Radio — run and operated by PTV and PBC respectively — in Muzaffarabad is a heap of rubble, with twisted computer frames sticking out from among bricks and broken pieces of furniture. About 160 staffers worked here. According to some accounts about half of them perished although it's hard to tell as people are still busy searching for relatives and burying their dead and have nowhere yet to report to work.

There are exceptions. Rafiq Bhatti was deputy controller of news at the radio. After shifting his family to Islamabad he has courageously set up a tent and files two to three stories a day, writing them on paper and using the phone to report. There is no word when the TV and Radio stations will be re-built.

What is the role being played by local newspapers? Are they publishing or have they stopped due to the quake? Is the administration responding to stories in the press? The local press has been decimated. All the presses are buried under the rubble. The city's largest newspaper distribution agency — Azad Book Shop — is somehow still standing but its owner has lost his house and distracted. It is not a surprise newspapers printed in Islamabad are not making it to Muzaffarabad regularly. Few have the money to buy and read newspapers. Many of the regular reading public is either dead or shifted.

Journalists say that while newspapers will not take long to revive, a glaring difference will be absence of the small local press. It is highly likely that some of the major publishing houses in Pakistan — sensing an opening in the local market — will move in. The small press owners simply don't have the financial resources to go back to their old business anytime soon.

The Muzaffarabad Press Club, like most building in the city, lies in ruins. From the grounds of the club there's a spectacular view of the mountains. Pine trees once dominated these slopes, but now large swathes of them are barren. Landslides have swept the trees down the mountains burying entire villages.

Iftikhar Ali, correspondent for Jang newspaper, is filing a dozen stories a day. He is currently camped in front of the press club. Also finance secretary of the decimated club, Ali is not sure how many of its 32 members have survived. He can only vouch for eight journalists. Abdul Hafeez Salib, the president of the press club, he sadly confirms though, is dead.

In pre-quake times, it was difficult to report much freely in AJK. The only mass media was electronic and there was a state monopoly over broadcast media. Not surprising because the establishment's emphasis was on controlling the message in a state with a large presence of the military and militant groups. Private print media existed but circulation was woeful. All of this is gone now.

The silver lining, however, is that a few weeks before the quake, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority invited expressions of interest for private FM radio stations in an incredible 20 cities and towns of Azad Kashmir. The quake has, apparently, not deterred PEMRA from its intention to open up the airwaves in the state for private ownership. It last week extended the deadline for EoIs from October 15 to November 15, 2005. This is a good sign.

The information needs of Azad Kashmir will only increase and increase geometrically over the coming months and years. With low literacy rates and quake-induced resource crunch as well as decimation of small presses, people will not be able to read newspapers or watch TV. Accessing the cheap medium of radio is the answer to all information needs of the affected millions as they are shifted to refugee camps and tent villages.

The governments of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir as well as PEMRA will do a great service to all these millions if they can quickly — in a matter of weeks, not months — allow at least a few emergency broadcast licenses (even for a limited interim period before the process of issuance of general licenses and allocation of frequencies is done for the 20 cities and towns intended) so that there is at least a basic system in place whereby people can be given coordinated relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation-related information critical for survival during the harsh winters.

State of media in post-quake NWFP

Some of the severer hits taken by the media in NWFP and Northern Areas include Mansehra, Batagram and Balakot districts. Cracks have appeared in the Mansehra Press Club, rendering it unsafe. The press club at Balakot has been destroyed. Even before the quake, most independent media in these regions lacked capacity for the kind of information dissemination that is needed now, and will continue to be needed in the weeks ahead. Few TV sets survive and there are no newspapers in the region and the only information they can get is from radio. The quantity and quality of reporting about these regions on PBC is far from adequate. Coverage of the disaster zones are hindered by limited resources, including technical and logistical.

The only private radio station with accessible broadcasts in the Mansehra, Balakot and Batagram regions is Power 99 based in Abbotabad. However, since the quake, power supply has been patchy, making broadcasts irregular. The private TV and radio stations and the state media have only been reporting from safe areas instead of actually being in places like Balakot where 90 per cent of the population is either dead or trapped under the rubble.

Print media in NWFP wanting to report is facing problems in reporting from the region. The lines of communication have been adversely affected. Since mobile phones are expensive and mobile coverage not available in remote areas shattered by the quake and the landlines damaged, the extent of disaster in these areas is not being reported effectively.

According to Peshawar-based journalist Iqbal Khattak, the government is clueless about the use of media to manage crisis and ask for donations — cash, kind and blood. Newsmen from the affected regions, on the other hand, have no idea about the angles they can explore that could lead to effective response. Because of these problems, newspapers, he says, are not pushing for greater coverage or dispatching staff to the disaster-struck areas.

While most newspapers have their district correspondents, they cannot be reached through land, phones or mobile phones. Where they can be reached, the correspondents are not qualified or good enough to report and there is a need for trained staff to be sent for reporting.

According to Khattak, most major stories in the papers have come from foreign wire services. Pakistani papers, he says, are just not prepared for the wide coverage that the earthquake demands. There is no focus on the human aspect of the stories, just statistics and general descriptions. There is a need for capacity building of the press and journalists in remote areas to report on crisis. As it happened in case of Balakot, a remote area that requires two days to travel back and forth and a day of coverage, reporters sent out can only report on their return and by the time the story is stale.

The media in Pakistan often relies heavily on the government officials and quarters for information. As it happens and as proved by the response and crisis management in the wake of the earthquake, the authorities are the least prepared and often the least organised and coordinated. Lazy journalism is the norm made worse by lack of resources and irresponsibility.

According to Khattak, the journalists need to be trained in news gathering and seeking multiple sources to verify information.

Relief organisations have first hand information about a disaster and they should share it with media so that this dependency on the state-sources of information is reduced. "We are just not well equipped and not in the picture," says Khattak. Most newspapers do not encourage or motivate journalists to commit to a story. Journalists on their own are reluctant to go where the stories are because of Ramadan, travel, inconvenience and lack of institutional support and resources. "Reporting disaster means being in the same conditions as affectees. We mostly depend on conferences, handouts and press releases. Lack of equipment and training is also a huge problem that often leads to bad or ineffective reporting," he says.

Sabooh is a journalist from Abbotabad. He works for Geo, a leading TV news channel that has reported widely on the earthquake. He has been reporting from Murree, Muzaffarabad, Nathiagali, Mansehra and Balakot on the disaster. When he was in Balakot, he came across only one foreign TV channel — Al Jazeera — covering the quake in a region with high casualties and widespread devastation. "The channels and newspapers are content lifting off material from each other instead of being there themselves. There is no confirmation of news or follow-ups, communication is a huge problem and the victims cannot reach out to the world. Those affected by the quake have been asking to use our phones to call dear ones. Even when news breaks out, most newspapers and broadcasters are content with calling the local authorities to gather information," he says.

According to Sabooh, lack of institutional support and the right equipment is a huge problem. "People who go out should have support, they are at risk as they travel in the dark and bad weather conditions." Reporters need equipment and training in disaster reporting, says Sabooh. "If we had video phones to show the people living out in the ruins, rain and thunder, it would have had greater impact." Lack of resources compels journalists to rely on outdated equipment to report.

According to Sabooh, there is no coordination between the government and private sector. "There is no trust and a lot of suspicions that tend to politicise issues. In such a situation, media can act as a clearing house of information by working closely with the NGOs and the government to help them find a way out of the chaos and confusion. It was through live reporting from remote villages that people were able to bring medicine and the army responded."

Fayyaz Ali Shah heads the Radio Buraq 104 at Peshawar. His brother is the editor-in-chief of Mashriq, an Urdu newspaper. Radio Buraq, like Geo TV that also own the Jang and The News newspapers, has been running live reports from their newspaper correspondents based all over the Northern Areas.

Buraq has been getting coverage through mobile phones from the areas surrounding Balakot and other areas. Due to lack of communication they have had patchy contact with correspondents in Shangla and Balakot — areas badly hit by the quake. While manpower is no problem for Buraq — it certainly is for other radio stations — Fayyaz says they don't have the right equipment to report. They need satellite phones for effective reporting from disaster-struck areas.

NGOs, according to Fayyaz, depend on media for information but the media in the crucial early days were more focused on Islamabad where the president and the prime-minister are. He says with the right kind of coverage, media can help NGOs identify places for intervention. "There's a need for the two to come together and build on the structures they have in place wherever they are."

Fayyaz says most reporting is done on the desk. There's little tradition of 'on spot coverage'. "For that you need resources, equipment like cameras, satellite phones etc. Our journalists don't have expertise. They need training so they can respond to disaster. They need guidelines on covering related stories and broaden their reporting concepts and angles."

Challenges

Information about relief operations in the short term and the reconstruction and rehabilitation is critical for survival in the quake-affected regions. Sustainable local media capacity to provide reliable information, particularly in local languages, has been virtually decimated in quake zones as there is no specialist capacity in existing media to report on properly in relief/post-disaster reporting.

Solutions

Since media outlets and journalists do not have adequate resources or the capacity to provide much-needed specialised post-disaster information to victims, general audiences and policymakers, Pakistani media and journalists need help now. The primary focus of assistance should be:

• Support for specific local and state broadcasters within the earthquake zone to broadcast, so they can provide vital news and information to victims. Infrastructure needs include transmitters, antennas, mobile radio studios, and generators. Priority areas: Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Bagh and Rawalakot.
• Support for production teams and journalists working for and with those media outlets in the disaster zone. Production needs include mobile production equipment such as minidisk recorders, portable computers, satellite phones, transportation, and technical support.
• Support for the broader Pakistani journalistic and media community to cover the disaster and relief efforts with speed and accuracy. Needs include: access to information sources such as humanitarian relief organisations, the government and military, access to technical assistance in the form of satellite phones, field production equipment, transportation, and technical assistance to coordinate, share, and update information.
• Emergency FM radio stations (interim PEMRA licenses perhaps to already licensees based closest to the affected regions), information centres (rebuilding the press clubs with facilities for both print and broadcast media) and mobile production units.
• Distribution of up to 100,000 radio handsets — along with batteries — (one each family) to affected populations including those being housed in tent cities. During the coming winter, radio would be the key medium for the government authorities and humanitarian organisations to be in direct and regular contact with the millions of displaced persons in their tents.