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English to Chinese: Covering wars and conflicts (採訪戰爭及衝突)
Source text - English Covering wars and conflicts
• Be physically and mentally prepared. Go on a Hostile Environment course that
includes basic first aid training before your assignment if at all possible.
• Most conflict zones require an ability at least to run, hike and endure discomfort.
Ensure appropriate jabs and carry basic medical kit with clean needles. Wear
internationally recognised bracelet with caduceus symbol and record of allergies,
blood group etc. If in a conflict area with US forces, consider writing your blood
group on your boots – that’s what American troops do, so that’s where their medics
would look first.
• Know the background of the people and place of assignment and of the dispute.
Learn a few useful phrases in the local language, most essentially “foreign press” or
“journalist”. Know the meaning of local gestures that might be important.
• Do not move alone in a conflict zone. If travelling by road, use a safe and
responsible driver with knowledge of terrain and trouble spots. Identify your vehicle
as media unless that would attract attack. Travel in close convoy if possible. Do not
use military or military-type vehicles unless accompanying a regular army patrol.
Make sure your vehicle is sound, with plenty of fuel. In hot conditions check tyre
pressures regularly as a blow-out can be disastrous. Know how to change a tyre and
ensure the spare is roadworthy.
• Think twice about moving across open, or poorly covered ground, with troops.
Snipers are unlikely to distinguish between combatants and reporters.
• Seek the advice of local authorities and residents about possible dangers before
travelling. Check the road immediately ahead at safe intervals. Inform your
headquarters and colleagues remaining at base of where you are going, your intended
ETA and expected return. Check in frequently. Beware of carrying maps with
markings that might be construed as military.
• Meet unfamiliar contacts in public places and tell your office or trusted colleague
your plans. Try not to go alone into potential danger. Plan a fast and safe way out
before you enter a danger zone.
• Never carry a weapon or travel with journalists who do. Be prudent in taking
pictures. Seek the agreement of soldiers before shooting images. Know local
sensitivities about picture-taking.
• Carry picture identification. Do not pretend to be other than a journalist. Identify
yourself clearly if challenged. If working on both sides of a front line never give
information to one side about the other.
• Carry cigarettes and other giveaways as sweeteners. Stay calm and try to appear
relaxed if troops or locals appear threatening. Act friendly and smile.
• Carry emergency funds and a spare copy of your ID in a concealed place such as a
money belt. Have a giveaway amount ready to hand over.
• Keep emergency phone numbers at hand, programmed into satellite and mobile
phones, with a key 24/7 number on speed dial if possible. Know the location of
hospitals and their capabilities.
• Familiarise with weapons commonly used in the conflict, their ranges and
penetrating power so you can seek out the most effective cover. Know incoming from
outgoing. Know what landmines and other ordnance look like. Do not handle
abandoned weapons or spent munitions.
• Stay alert at all times, even after fighting or explosive event. Abandoned or
apparently spent munitions can explode at any time. A terror bombing could be
followed by a secondary device. Roadside bombs might be planted in rubbish or dead
animals. If in doubt – don’t go on.
• NEVER ASSUME – PERIOD. Beware – be very aware – of all military in a war.
Many soldiers in combat are poorly trained, young and inexperienced – and very
frightened. They will shoot first if they feel at all threatened. Do not assume they
know who you are, where you are and what you are doing in the thick of fighting.
Their leaders might but the boys with the big guns might not. Do not assume they can
see you clearly, especially through their sights. That camera you raise to your shoulder
could be seen as an anti-tank weapon. Hold the camera low when filming approaching
tanks and twitchy soldiers.
• Wear civilian clothes unless accredited as a war correspondent and required to wear
special dress. Avoid paramilitary-type clothing. Avoid carrying shiny objects and
exercise care with lenses. Reflections of bright sunlight can look like gun flashes.
• Be prepared to wear flak jackets, body armour, helmets, gas masks and NBC apparel
as appropriate. For demonstrations, use more discreet gear such as hardened
baseball-type hats and light undergarment protection.
• Know your rights, internationally and locally. Know the Geneva Conventions as
they relate to civilians in war zones.
• Journalists who have endured high danger and witnessed dreadful events may
experience traumatic stress in later weeks. Do not be embarrassed to seek counselling.
• Do pass on your advice and experience in the conflict to your colleagues; use the
INSI website to post timely information that might help save a life.
>> Quick tips
• Get out fast when clearly threatened
• Do not cross the battle zone, it could be very dangerous
• Be careful about reporting from both sides of a conflict
• Avoid bias for one or the other side
• Never draw maps of military positions or establishments in your notebook nor
should you show unusual interest in military equipment
• Do not take obvious notes in public nor pull out a microphone or notebook without
permission
If firing coming in your direction
• Take cover from view; do not wear anything bright
• Let your shiny equipment become dirty or muddy to lessen light reflection
• Do not take cover in position where someone has recently been firing
• A hole or a dip in the ground may provide enough cover
• In a building find a room without exterior walls such as a hotel bathroom
• Do not peek from your cover
• Even if you are behind a wall, lie flat on the ground
• When you take cover, immediately assess your situation and plan a route of escape
• When withdrawing, keep low while running and try to put vegetation or structures
between you and the firing position
• Leave equipment behind if this is hindering your escape
INSI Safety Code
The International News Safety Institute is dedicated to the right of all journalists to
exercise their profession free from persecution, physical attack and other dangers to
life and limb. While recognising that some conditions under which journalists and
media staff work never can be completely safe and secure, INSI will strive for the
elimination of unnecessary risk, in peace and in war. It will draw on the expertise of
its members and supporting organisations to lobby on behalf of working journalists
everywhere who embrace the INSI Code of Practice and confront physical or
psychological barriers to the free and independent gathering and dissemination of
news.
The INSI Safety Code
1. The preservation of life and safety is paramount. Staff and freelancers equally
should be made aware that unwarranted risks in pursuit of a story are unacceptable
and strongly discouraged. News organisations are urged to consider safety first, before
competitive advantage, for journalists in hostile environments.
2. Assignments to war and other danger zones must be voluntary and only involve
experienced news gatherers and those under their direct supervision. No career should
suffer as a result of refusing a dangerous assignment. Editors at base or journalists in
the field may decide to terminate a dangerous assignment after proper consultation
with one another.
3. All journalists and media staff must receive appropriate hostile environment and
risk awareness training before being assigned to a danger zone. Employers are urged
to make this mandatory.
4. Employers should ensure before assignment that journalists are fully up to date on
the political, physical and social conditions prevailing where they are due to work and
are aware of international rules of armed conflict as set out in the Geneva
Conventions and other key documents of humanitarian law.
5. Employers must provide efficient safety equipment and medical and health
safeguards appropriate to the threat to all staff and freelancers assigned to hazardous
locations.
6. All journalists should be afforded personal insurance while working in hostile areas,
including cover against personal injury and death. There should be no discrimination
between staff and freelancers.
7. Employers should provide free access to confidential counselling for journalists
involved in coverage of distressing events. They should train managers in recognition
of traumatic stress, and provide families of journalists in danger areas with
appropriate and timely advice on the safety of their loved-ones.
8. Journalists are neutral observers. No member of the media should carry a firearm in
the course of their work.
9. Governments and all military and security forces are urged to respect the safety of
journalists in their areas of operation, whether or not accompanying their own forces.
They must not restrict unnecessarily freedom of movement or compromise the right of
the news media to gather and disseminate information.
10.Security forces must never harass, intimidate or physically attack journalists about
their lawful business.
The INSI Code has been developed from a number of existing industry codes
prepared by leading journalist groups and media organisations
Objectives
The activities INSI conducts have the following objectives:
• Develop a global campaign of safety for journalists by introducing safety issues into
the mainstream of international media development strategies including actions to
improve levels of professionalism, to raise awareness in journalism of ethical issues,
to improve the standing of journalists in relation with governments and political
authorities and to support independent media initiatives. Those actions are only
possible and sustainable if there is the creation of a safe and secure environment for
the exercise of journalism.
• Provide pro-active and timely support to journalists and media staff in conflict areas,
achieved through rapid safety training interventions to improve the working
conditions of local journalists. This is fast becoming an essential process to promote
and strengthen press freedom and professional journalism. The aim must be to allow
the population in endangered areas their right to be informed and to exercise their
right to express themselves freely - also in times of crisis.
• Strengthen media professionalism in societies where social dislocation, conflict or
political transition undermine the roots of democracy. A reliable system is essential to
a society making well-informed decisions. In a time of political transition and/or
conflict, the pressures upon news editors and journalists become more intensive and
therefore the traditional standards of professionalism require practical reinforcement
and support.
It is important to recall that of the estimated 1,000 journalists killed since 1996,
around 93 per cent of the journalists were born and raised in the land where they died.
Foreign correspondents are the high profile casualties, but most victims are local.
When the victim is a journalist working in his or her own community, the news makes
little impact outside that region. Yet, local journalists are at greater risk because they
continue to live in the areas from where they report. When the story is over they
cannot board an airplane and fly away.
INSI works to achieve its objectives in Americas, South Asia, Asia-Pacific, the
Middle East and Northern Africa, Africa and Europe and Central Asia.
I started working as an in-house translator from 1989. Over the years, I spent most of the time on the journalism sector, working for local newspaper titles and an international news agency, Reuters (for 11 years on a supervisory level). I was also a Chief Editor for a Greater China media conglomerate, TOM Group, in charge of all the public relation correspondence. In recent years, I started an on-demand role for the world's largest offshore legal service provider, offering a linguistic expert service on legal documents submitted to Registry of Cayman Islands Government.
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