When you’re out covering a story, are you planning an escape route?
NPR’s Windsor Johnston says that’s what she does whenever a reporting assignment involves a large crowd.
“People feel they have a directive” to go after journalists these days, Johnston told an audience of journalism educators meeting in Washington, just days after CNN reporter Jim Acosta had been targeted at a Trump political rally.
Johnston experienced something similar herself when covering dueling rallies outside the White House. She was confronted by people yelling “NPR is fake news!” and someone threw a rock at her. She wasn’t injured but the Secret Service did nothing to protect her, she said.
“Go out with a plan and a partner,” Johnston advises. “Be mindful of your surroundings. Be careful not to get too embedded in a crowd. Pay attention to the mood of the crowd.”
Until recently, safety training was typically provided to journalists heading to war zones or “hostile environments” overseas. But times have changed. According to First Amendment Watch at New York University, there’s been an “alarming rise” in verbal and physical threats to members of the news media in the United States. As the kind of situation Johnston faced becomes more common, conversations about how to stay safe should be happening in every newsroom and journalism classroom.
A student at Missouri recently was spit on and yelled at by two angry men as she covered a local election.
“Obviously there is nothing we can really do to prevent things like this from happening,” she wrote in her account of the event, written “for the record” (and shared here with her permission).
“However, I feel that we can learn and prepare,” she wrote. “I do think the newsroom should talk about what to do in these instances and how journalists can keep themselves safe.”
NPR has offered safety training to its reporters, says executive producer Robert Garcia. “Don’t get caught in a corner” is one key piece of advice the trainers shared. He, too, urges reporters to pay close attention to the mood of the people around them. “Something peaceful can turn violent in a second.”
Are you talking about this with your journalists, student or professional? If you have suggestions for how to do this well, please share.
Updated: August 20, 2018
