Just telling the story?
Our understanding of the Haitian earthquake is enabled by today’s communication technology. As soon as the earthquake hit, everyone in the world could access information and pictures. As soon as the journalists got there, we had the reports, the maps, the statistics, the individual human stories of suffering and loss.
Yet, on arriving in Haiti, the journalists were faced with appalling choices when they got to areas of devastation before aid agencies and found injury, homelessness, the demolition of infrastructure, scarcity of medicine and electricity. What job were they there to do?
Guilt for journalists
Matthew Price was one of the BBC’s first reporters in Haiti. He spoke on Radio 4’s The Media Show about what it was like being a journalist in a place that seriously needed help, any help, from anyone. He said: ‘I can tell you that the guilt started setting in very early on. I had all these people around me needing help and there was nothing I could do in the context of my job. The Haitians would be giving me an interview and towards the end of it they would say, “Right, now what are you going to do for me?” My initial answer was, “Look, I’m not a doctor or a builder, but a journalist and I hope that by putting the interview out on air around the world, there will be people who will see it who will give money, and politicians who will be led to give more aid from their national government. And that in its turn will make a difference”. One woman I reported on and whose story went out around the world said, “Both my legs are broken, please help me”. I told her that her story would be seen by millions and she just gave me a small smile’.
