Stockholm Trauma & Journalism Workshop

A report from the 2005 Stockholm Trauma & Journalism Workshop.

Stockholm in mid-June, when the sky is not fully dark at midnight and daylight wakes you three hours later, gives people from other parts of the world a new perspective. A new viewpoint is what journalists from Turkey, South Africa and Russia brought to a Dart Centre workshop held June 17-18 on the eve of the 9th European Conference on Traumatic Stress (ECOTS).

Nadezhda Azhgikhina of the Russian Union of Journalists said the Beslan school siege had suddenly and dramatically highlighted the importance of the work that the Dart Centre is doing and had forced many Russian journalists to question their traditional work practices.

There was unanimous approval when Mark Brayne told the workshop that "if something happens within a year in Moscow, it will be a positive outcome for the meeting in Stockholm."

Among the recommendations endorsed by the workshop were extending the reach of the Dart Centre by involving trade unions in its work and getting the EU to support the programme.

Nadire Mater, a London-based Turkish journalist, suggested that the large number of reporters killed in her country could be the catalyst for a comprehensive study into what is being taught in schools of journalism.

One participant noted that while there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence, no comparative study has yet been done into best practice in Europe.

The workshop was also encouraged by what happened during last year’s News Exchange conference in Portugal, where a group of Arab journalists, from Al Jazeera television and other media, held a session to discuss trauma and reporting. We recommended that a segment be devoted to trauma and emerging journalism at the 2006 News Exchange, to be held in Amsterdam.

The workshop also heard moving accounts from journalists who have lived for long periods in war zones, among them Leon Malherbe, a cameraman who worked in Africa for Reuters, and Mervyn Jess, who reports for the BBC from Northern Ireland. While war reporting is only one among many kinds of traumatic experiences to which journalists are exposed, these two men brought it home to us again what the Dart Centre is striving to achieve.

The seminar was brought up-to-date on developments in treatment for PTSD with an explanation of eye-movement desensitisation recovery (EMDR) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). We also learned that the 2005 guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in Britain now recognize that single one-on-one or group debriefing sessions are thought to be ineffective and may even be harmful.

Other colleagues will also be writing about their experience of the Dart Centre workshop in Stockholm—so please continue to watch this space.