In a disaster, local media need support

Within hours of last month's South Asia earthquake, a handful of organizations focusing on humanitarian information began mobilizing to support Pakistani media. Their objective was to replace as quickly as possible damaged radio transmission equipment and to train local journalists in the reporting of humanitarian needs as a way of helping disaster victims.

Above all, they wished to ensure that the more than 3 million people affected by the Oct. 8 catastrophe were properly informed about relief efforts, particularly in the more inaccessible outlying areas.

What previous disasters such as Rwanda, Kosovo, and the Indian Ocean tsunami have shown only too clearly is the powerful impact credible information can have - not only on improving humanitarian coordination and response, but also, most critically, in saving lives.

Two weeks into the crisis, however, humanitarian information still did not figure in the United Nations' "flash appeal" for support. Even the International Federation of the Red Cross, which recently published a report dedicated to the role of information in times of crisis, failed to incorporate support for local media as part of its response. As a result, Pakistani journalists - 50 of whom are believed to have been killed, or injured, or are missing in the quake - had to struggle with limited resources in their efforts to reach victims with rescue operation details.

While UN representatives privately acknowledged the importance of hitting the ground running with independent "lifeline media" initiatives, officially, information was not perceived as part of the Pakistani relief effort. Once again, as during the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, the international community ignored the crucial importance of disseminating credible and, above all, independent "news that you can use" to the very people they were supposed to be assisting. As one UN official explained with a shrug, "There are other, more urgent priorities."

Such attitudes severely undermine the victim's right to know. They suggest that material relief, such as food and medicine, takes precedence over information, even if it helps survivors make informed decisions about their own well-being.

"There is absolutely no excuse for this," Warren Feek, director of the Communication Initiative, told the Global Forum for Media Development, a recent international gathering of producers, journalists, and media organizations in Amman, Jordan.

As both Mr. Feek and others point out, there is abundant evidence supporting the need for reliable information as an indispensable component of any aid or post- conflict recovery operation. Disaster victims, including those who survived hurricane Katrina, have repeatedly cited information as among their most immediate concerns, often over material relief.

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