Why newsrooms need to prioritise journalist safety in 2024

An extract of this piece was originally published on journalism.co.uk.

By Hannah Storm, Media Consultant, specialising in safety and crisis management, and Founder & CEO of the Headlines Network which promotes more open conversations about mental health in journalism.

The news industry has been lurching from coverage of one external crisis to another in the past few years. Historic numbers of people displaced by conflict and disaster, the unexpected election of polarising politicians, a global pandemic: each of these has demanded extensive investment by journalism organisations, so too other issues that have exposed inequity on a societal scale, such as the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, and the climate crisis.

On top of this, the past couple of years has seen major conflicts consuming significant resources within many international media organisations, not least in Ukraine and Gaza.

Read more: Why newsrooms should have mental health strategies for climate journalists (Insight)

I am writing this during a conflict, which has proved the deadliest for our industry since records began. As of January 10, the Committee to Protect Journalists recorded at least 79 journalists and media workers killed since the start of fighting in Gaza in early October.*

The past few years have taken a toll on our journalism colleagues. Having worked in media safety for more than a decade, I have never known a time when I so feared for the wellbeing of our colleagues, and by extension the wellbeing of this industry.

I’m constantly hearing people say that these are unprecedented times, but this implies things will settle at some stage, that soon we will be able to take a break from the relentless breaking news.

I worry our industry is facing an existential crisis where we are no longer equipped to deal with the demands of daily news, because there is just too much.

Figuring out how to deal with the overwhelm and recognising what to prioritise in order to promote more sustainable processes may not seem connected to safety considerations.

However, having recently written a book on journalism and mental health, I know that we can’t separate the wellbeing of our industry from the wellbeing of our individuals.

Newsrooms need to ensure they reserve enough resources to be sustainable, and ensure they recognise the difference between the non-negotiable aspects of journalism, and the nice to haves.

In other words, they need to distinguish between what they need to protect and continue doing at all costs, and what can be delayed, ditched, or delegated so they can keep on keeping on. This is crisis management, or business continuity, in a nutshell.

I worry our industry is facing an existential crisis where we are no longer equipped to deal with the demands of daily news, because there is just too much.

Years of working in media safety has taught me that safety is far more than a physical issue and there are costs to not planning, to not having in place strategies to deal with crises.

These costs are financial, physical, psychological, and cultural. In effect, they are costs to our industry and the individuals within it that prevent us from doing our best work because we are not planning on how to cover crises before they happen.

Just as most newsrooms have strategies for digital, for AI, for audience, they will need strategies for safety that incorporate crisis management and ensure our journalism can continue to thrive. All newsrooms would benefit from someone who is a bridge between editorial and safety, who can step back and not get pulled into firefighting.

I recognise it’s not possible to mitigate against every risk.

In many ways, journalism is about responding to fires. It’s about covering the news and experiences that are beyond our expectations. As journalists, many of us are used to running towards danger and difficulty, but in the past, this has been interspersed with down time.

Too few news organisations are implementing strategies that allow them to effectively plan for crises, to identify risks, while minimising costs to their journalism and crucially their journalists.

Firefighting is not something that can be done for a long time. It demands a focus, forcing our attention from other things into survival mode. I’m concerned that too many of those in charge of safety in newsrooms are constantly trying to put out fires, unable to consider the risks that might be on the horizon and how to mitigate them.

Too few newsrooms have people with responsibility for safety who understand the realities of journalism, who think like journalists, but who are also able to take stock of, mitigate and plan for the potential problems faced by a diverse community of people for whom definitions of danger and difficulty can be very different.

Just as most newsrooms have strategies for digital, for AI, for audience, they will need strategies for safety that incorporate crisis management and ensure our journalism can continue to thrive.

Until newsrooms recognise the need for someone to take more of a strategic look at editorial safety in all its forms, these organisations will be trapped in a cycle of firefighting, which will impact on wellbeing, decisions and ultimately cost the organisation more.