The results are in from the only controlled study to date on the effects of trauma on journalists covering the conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of 63 reporters and media workers since 2011.
When Patrick Howse returned to London after a seven year tour of duty in and out of Baghdad as the BBC's bureau chief, a seemingly ordinary incident on the Central Line tube took him back to the war, and triggered the onset of PTSD. It also changed his life.
(The painting image below, "PTSD Patrick," by Inge Schlaile.)
New Zealand's Law Commission recommends Parliament restrict the media's reporting on suicides in an effort to prevent copycat suicides.
The Fort Hood Army Base in Killeen, Texas suffered a tragic second mass shooting yesterday when a soldier killed three people and wounded 16 others before fatally turning a gun on himself. Read the Dart Center's resources on covering such tragedies.
On December 6-7 2013, the Dart Center hosted a workshop for journalists to improve news coverage of immigrants and refugees, with a special focus on mental health. This workshop was sponsored by the Thomas Scattergood Foundation for Behavioral Health.
ProPublica's Lois Beckett writes about the high rates of PTSD experienced in America's most violent neighborhoods. In some areas, rates of PTSD surpass those of Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam veterans. There are few options for the diagnosis and treatment of civilians and there are families and communities are facing debilitating consquences.
Following the landmark PTSD case in which a journalist referred to as "AZ" sought damages against Australia's The Age newspaper, Bree Knoester, one of the plaintiff's lawyers, reflects on the case, which was ultimately won by The Age. "Perhaps injuries are not preventable at all," Knoester writes. "What is clear, particularly through the work of Dart, is that there are systems that can be put in place by media organisations."
Following the landmark PTSD case in which a journalist referred to as "AZ" sought damages against Australia's The Age newspaper, Bree Knoester, one of the plaintiff's lawyers, reflects on the case, which was ultimately won by The Age. Perhaps injuries are not preventable at all," Knoester writes. "What is clear, particularly through the work of Dart, is that there are systems that can be put in place by media organisations."
This article first appeared, in a longer version, in Precedent, the journal of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, issue 117, published in August 2013 (Sydney, Australia, ISSN 1449-7719), pp 40-44. It has been reproduced with the kind permission of the author and the ALA.
Eleven million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S., not only without the same basic rights as citizens, but with the constant fear of losing their freedom and livelihood. Sixty-three percent have been in the country at least 10 years. How do journalists report on immigrants and grapple with a system one speaker described as "a modern form of apartheid"? Click here for full video coverage, and tips from workshop speakers.