War correspondents found to suffer from stories they cover

By Julie Tomlin
Special to freedomforum.org

04.13.01

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LONDON — War correspondents who report on conflicts around the world are more likely to suffer severe depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, take hard drugs and drink more heavily than other journalists, a new study has revealed.

Research carried out by Anthony Feinstein of the University of Toronto and funded by The Freedom Forum reveals that women who have reported from war zones drink four times more heavily than non-war journalists, while their male colleagues drink twice as much as those who had not been to war.

More of the 170 war correspondents who took part in the study drink excessively and take hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, compared to the 80 Canadian journalists who took part in the survey but who had no experience of conflict reporting.

War correspondents also experience a higher prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder than police officers and levels that are on par with combat veterans.

Speaking at the launch of the report at The Freedom Forum's European Center in London last night, Dr. Feinstein pointed out that journalists, unlike soldiers and policemen, are not trained to deal with violence.

Allan Little, the BBC's Africa correspondent, who took part in a panel to discuss the research, said he was not surprised by the findings.

"The idea that you can spend a decade or more in war zones and experience the horror and impossible misery that others are suffering, and then go out again and have a normal life, really has to be challenged," he said.

Feinstein's report, "A Hazardous Profession: War, Journalists and Psychopathology," drew on the experience of war correspondents from six major news organizations: CNN, BBC, Reuters, CBC, the Associated Press, ITN and the Rory Peck Trust, which represents free-lance journalists.

All the journalists who took part had been shot at, two had experienced mock executions and three had lost close colleagues while they were working together.

As a result of their experiences in the field, the war journalists experienced problems of flashbacks and recurring images of trauma. There were also high levels of severe depression, psychological distress, anxiety and social dysfunction not present among the journalists who had not experienced war.

"Two factors that particularly distinguished war journalists were sudden changes in mood and feelings of emptiness inside," said Feinstein. "This in part seems to be what drives them to do what they do."

But despite the high incidence of depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, war correspondents were no more likely than other journalists to receive psychiatric help.

This reflects "a culture of silence on the part of news bosses and the journalists themselves, a belief that as a profession they can go off to war and emerge psychologically unscathed," said Feinstein.

London Times correspondent Janine di Giovanni said she had not experienced post-traumatic stress disorder despite experiences of being shot at and being subjected to a mock execution.

"To me it seems incredibly indulgent, because it is the people who have been raped, the people who have had their villages destroyed, the amputees in Sierra Leone who are traumatized," she said. "We go there voluntarily and we can leave, but they don't."

Mark Brayne of the BBC's World Service, who also is a trained psychotherapist, said the fact that the issue was being discussed showed that "we have arrived at a significant point in journalism."

"The key issue in this is that of emotional literacy," he added. "We need to be able to process our own experiences, both for our own well-being and because it enables us to reflect more accurately what goes on. The picture we paint of the world will be more likely to help it understand itself."

But he also asked: "Are we in a mess because we do journalism, or do we do journalism because we are in a mess?"

After PTSD experts Dr. Frank Ochberg from the Dart Center and Dr. Gordon Turnbull from the Priory Group agreed some people were genetically more disposed to post- traumatic stress disorder, Vaughan Smith from the production company Television asked if "screening" would show which journalists would be most affected by war.

"I'm sure that's what is going to happen," he added.

While many of the journalists who took part in the research suffered the effects of post-traumatic stress, Feinstein discovered that few chose to keep away from situations that they knew would remind them of the trauma.

Di Giovanni said, "I have often said I'm not going back, but then the phone rings and you are there," she said. "Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why we are there."

Julie Tomlin is a writer for Press Gazette, a British weekly trade magazine for journalists.