What If…? Safety Handbook for Women Journalists” (2017)
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International Association of Women in Radio and Television WHAT IF…? SAFETY HANDBOOK FOR WOMEN JOURNALISTS Practical advice based on personal experience Published by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) © International Association of Women in Radio and Television 2017 Illustrations © Doaa Eladl, used with permission Abeer Saady asserts her right to be known as the author of this work. Copyediting by Nonee Walsh Contents Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 Preface: The Third Gender! ................................................................... 4 1. Risk Assessment .............................................................................. 10 The four stages of a safety plan: ..................................................... 10 Receiving threats ............................................................................ 12 2. Profile Management, and Gender Based Preparation: .................. 14 Working undercover ....................................................................... 18 Developing situational awareness skills ......................................... 20 3. Gender Based Violence and Harassment........................................ 24 Outside and inside the Office ......................................................... 26 Harassment by sources ................................................................... 32 Online harassment: ......................................................................... 33 Rape as a weapon ........................................................................... 37 4. Travel Safety .................................................................................... 40 The “Grab Bag” ............................................................................... 41 Mobility options .............................................................................. 42 Hotels in conflict zones: .................................................................. 45 Countering surveillance .................................................................. 47 Checkpoints ..................................................................................... 47 5. Digital & Equipment Safety ............................................................. 50 6. Crowd Management ....................................................................... 53 7. Wars and Conflicts… a Woman’s Land! ......................................... 58 Dealing ith ared grups ............................................................. 58 Caght n rossfire .......................................................................... 61 idnappig and eention .............................................................. 64 H t ad beng kidnaped ....................................................... 65 Survival dring iappig.............................................................. 66 rreed urng cerage ............................................................... 68 r Strie ad Psychosocia aety .............................................. 70 Dealing ith urvrs ..................................................................... 70 Cerng olence aganst wome and girs G ..................... 72 elf-care ad dealing with raa .................................................. 75 10 thica afet esions ................................................................ 78 T reprt r ot?............................................................................. 78 Intervie errrst r ot? ............................................................ 79 ert r hep? ............................................................................... 80 11 ega afey ................................................................................... 82 ha an anager do? ................................................................. 83 In onclusion ....................................................................................... 86 Useful Links ..................................................................................... 8 Acrnyms ............................................................................................ 89 11 Introduction Th Intrnational ssociation of Womn in adio and lision feels stronly that ther is a need for a concrte and ractical handbook with adice and rcommndations on scrit and saft which is scially addrssd to womn ournalists orkin in ar and conflict. n rcnt ars ha ivn saft trainin to hundrds of womn durin W regular confrncs to mor fmal mdia workrs arond t orld. Particiants raised t ned for suc a andook corin bot the nral tarting of journalists and attacs scificall dircted at omn ournalists. The IAWRT international board’s decision to draft this manual coincidd ith th kidnapping of freelanc rai ornalist frah Shak who workd for local and intrnational Araic langua otlts. h was idnapd from hr om in ahdad in ecemr 2016 and ld for tn das. This attac as on of man tartin womn ournalists across th world. Attacs ar teen rutal incidnts in conflict ons such as the on hich too th lif of Marie Colin in 201 whil sh was corin the si of Homs in ria for a Britis nspar to lectronic arassmnt to lal challengs tartin female ornalists. rina Booa the irctor-neral of C has dscribed iolnce against female journalists as a “double attack” as they are tartd as womn and as rofssional ournalists. n th light of this UN curit Council resolution 2222 passed on 27 May 2015 drew attention to “the scific riss facd b womn ornalists mdia rofssionals and 2 associated personnel in conduct of their work” and called for an understanding of gender dimensions when considering measures to ensure journalists’ safety.1 IAWRT has been inspired and informed by guides from UNC2 and Reporters Without Borders RSF)3. The study, Violence and Harassment against Women in the News Media: A Global Picture, conducted by The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and The International News afety Institute INI was also helpful4. The author of our handbook is Abeer Saady a journalist with 27 years of eperience in coering news and training in conflict zones he is a current IAWRT international board member Abeer has trained journalists on safety in hostile enironments and on conflict sensitie reporting across the world ere she combines her own eperiences as a female war correspondent with the eperiences related by women she has trained 1 ecurity Council adopts resolution 2222 https//wwwun.org/pressen2015/sc11908dochtm 2 UNC Chapters on gender http://wwwunesco.org/newfileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CICIpdfprotecti ngjournalismsourcesin_digitalagepdf http//unesdocunescoorg/image s/002/0022/225e.pdf 3 Women ournalists Commitment and Challenges https//rsforg/ennews/women-journalists-commitment-and-challenges 4 2013IWM with II launched the first global surey of security risks for women journalists http://wwwiwmforg/our-research/journalist-safety/ iolence and arassment against Women in ews Media A lobal icture IWM II 2014 http://wwwiwmforg/our-research/journalist-safety/violence- andharassment-against-women-in-the-news-media-a-global-picture 3 This is the first edition of our handbook. We would like to thank oth the orweian nion of ournalists [Norsk ournalistla () and UNESCO for supporting it. We hae plans for translations to other lanuaes and the deeloment of an ap easy accessible from a mobile hone. We sincerely hope that What if? …. Safety Handbook for Woen ornalits will be helpful for its readers – may they e female or male! Gunilla aron resident International ssociation of Women in adio and Teleision 4 reface he hird ender “We have to use the fact that we are women,” a Greek journalist told after bel entered the byan apital Tripoli n ugust 201 had finished u coverag and ere ger o st. e w main otel wer completel full male porter working or ch ia organizations. reelancer and gional reporter had to ind pl stay. only ption hotel controlled th fighters. My colleague argued that the fighters’ Arab culture of hospitality, would rompt h t agree Late th allowed u t st not just becau her ea but ecause tol th that r ssion reporter w tel wo-sided ori which ant e ould ell their de oo One f he ighter rai cultural nd eligious considerations related to gender, but another said ’Don’t look at them as women. They are journalists. We need them’.” Thi id argu reminded me of the famous quote of the BBC’s Chief nternational orrespondent Doucette h filed ellent stories from Afghanistan and the Middle East. “In many conflict places I’ve worked in, western woman journalists have been regarded almost third gender. They are not treated as local women”. She said that t Hannah or for er book, No Woman’s Land: On the Frontline with eale eorter, co-written ith elen Williams5. In the 2017 IAWRT ‘women making news’ documentary, Velvet Revolution6 Ly Doucett told er experienc of eing female 5 Hannah rm Williams eds.) No Woman’s Land: On the Frontlin wi male porter 2012). ternational Safety stitut (March 012) 6 IAWRT documentary elvet evolution http://www.iawrt.org/projects/2017/velvet-revolution 5 reporter, which was so difficult to understand within the cultural contet of Afghanistan that she was treated virtually as a man. Like her Greek colleague, she noted that they wanted the BBC’s coverage. However, not all women journalists are treated as a ‘third gender’ and of those that are, it is not always for the duration of the assignment. In this handbook, we consider the different categories of media women: there are international women journalists