When it comes to developing a safety culture, a war zone is probably the most challenging environment. So how do you convince war-zone journalists that health and safety is relevant to them? Alison Wright Reid, now health and safety manager for Ofcom, told IOSH 10 delegates about her experience of this issue when she worked for the BBC.
In a fascinating history of warfare, Alison observed that “health and safety started in war” – in fact, HMS Victory was riddled with health and safety measures, even down to the colour of the paintwork to prevent friendly fire. But until recently there was a sense of ‘journalistic immunity’ that gave reporters a culture of risk-acceptance alongside their moral sense of a need to bear witness in the thick of battle.
The need for a safety culture intensified with the use of media as a weapon in places like Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where journalists became as much of a target as the armed forces. Alison described the ‘moral epiphany’ of a BBC executive during the siege of Dubrovnik, which led to health and safety being prioritised over everything else – and how tapping into the ‘tribal culture’ of news journalists meant that any safety measures that were adopted spread quickly – even among reporters from competing channels.
Concluding her insights, Alison had an unsettling surprise in store: most war journalists are not actually killed in the ‘fog of war’. Instead, they’re targeted by people who want to silence them – so health and safety focuses heavily on how they can tell if they’re being stalked.
