COLOMBIA:
Helping Reporters Identify and Deal with Post-Traumatic Stress
Constanza Vieira
ARAUCA, Colombia, Oct 27 (IPS) - A journalist whose emotions have been
blunted by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cannot reflect the pain
suffered by others and can cause great harm through their work, says
Colombian psychologist Marta Chinchilla.
The psychologist, who specialises in PTSD, provides assistance to reporters
in the eastern oil-producing Colombian department (province) of Arauca, a
war zone on the border with Venezuela.
In a recent workshop with a group of reporters from Arauca, she tried to
help them identify the symptoms of PTSD, which some people suffer after they
are exposed to a traumatic, stressful event.
The workshop formed part of an Oct. 22-24 seminar in the city of Arauca, the
provincial capital, organised by Media for Peace (MPP) - an association of
Colombian reporters attempting to provide balanced coverage of the country's
four-decade armed conflict - with support from the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation from Germany.
Most of the local reporters who attended work for national media outlets.
They are unable to leave the city for safety reasons.
Although the armed forces have successfully regained control of the city
under the "democratic security" policy of right-wing President Alvaro Uribe,
the army is still fighting the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) and smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) for control over
rural areas of the province, where the guerrillas have had a heavy presence
since the late 1960s.
The paramilitaries, who in many cases work in alliance with the army,
according to United Nations and Organisation of American States (OAS)
reports, have also been in Arauca since 1982, and represent another source
of danger to the local journalists.
Chinchilla forms part of "Resiliencia" (Resilience), a support group for
reporters created in early 2003 by the school of journalism at the Sergio
Arboleda private university in Bogota. She provides free assistance 12 hours
a week in the Colombian capital to any journalist who seeks her help.
The reporters from Arauca frequently receive assistance from Chinchilla by
means of phone calls and e-mail conversations.
Their professional relationship with her began in April 2003, when 16
reporters from Arauca travelled to Bogota to seek support and safeguards for
their work after receiving death threats from the guerrillas and the
paramilitaries.
The exodus of the journalists left Arauca without any press coverage for
several weeks, with the exception of the tiny local paper El Cronista, and
their presence in the Colombian capital had a major impact on public
opinion.
The majority of the reporters returned to Arauca after they were assigned
two armoured government vehicles and four police guards, which they have to
share among themselves.
The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of providing security measures for
hundreds of journalists, lawyers, trade unionists, rights activists and
others who have received death threats in Colombia, argues that its budget
is too limited to furnish the Arauca reporters with more armoured vehicles
and bodyguards.
Some of the reporters who protested the dangers they are facing lost their
jobs. Others were not re-assigned to cover the civil war.
But the rest make a daily effort to provide balanced coverage, while their
work is closely scrutinised by all of the warring factions.
As one of the reporters said, "the official sources want unconditional
reporters."
According to the Uribe administration, the armed conflict is actually "a war
against terrorism."
The insurgents and paramilitaries, meanwhile, frequently send the
journalists "warnings", and reporters are often called on by the authorities
to explain why they had contact with one source or another from the groups
that act outside the law.
And to make matters worse, sometimes the sources switch sides, which greatly
increases the danger faced by the journalists who have spoken to them.
Four reporters have been murdered in the past 14 years in the department of
Arauca, and in only one of the cases were the perpetrators convicted by the
courts. But the army soldiers who were sentenced in that case were only the
"material authors", and those who ordered the killing got off scot-free.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported that in the
past decade alone, at least 30 reporters have been killed in Colombia while
attempting to carry out their work.
"As long as whoever is killing journalists knows they will not be punished,
they feel safe continuing to do so," said Patricia Gómez, assistant director
of the national NTC newscast, who also spoke at the seminar.
"There is no less propitious setting for journalists to work in than a war,"
said Gómez, a member of Media for Peace.
"The press can help play up achievements, downplay defeats and camouflage
atrocities. All of the combatants want to use us to get information out. But
when they commit an atrocity, they only want us to stay far away," she
added.
Torture and mass killings of civilians of all ages in rural areas, sometimes
with chainsaws, are among the human rights violations committed in
Colombia's civil war.
It was the high risk and high stress levels faced by journalists in Arauca
that prompted Chinchilla to begin helping them learn about and deal with
PTSD. "The health of journalists is the health of the country," she said.
Although the armed conflict has dragged on for more than 40 years,
Chinchilla has not run across any other psychologist who specialises in
counselling reporters in Colombia.
She told the participants in the workshop that reporters are among the
groups most susceptible to suffering from PTSD.
Journalists are also the "least protected" group - from a psychological
standpoint - of first responders like fire fighters and others whose work
brings them into frequent close contact with human pain, including
psychologists themselves, Chinchilla told IPS.
In her workshops, she attempts to teach journalists how to identify the
mental and psychological impact of war coverage and the possible physical
symptoms, to help them seek out assistance.
PTSD can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening
events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents,
serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.
People who suffer from the disorder often relive their traumatic experiences
through nightmares and flashback episodes, have sleep disturbances or
frightening thoughts, suffer from irritability or outbursts of anger, or
feel detached or estranged - symptoms that can be severe enough and last
long enough to significantly impair the person's ability to function in
daily life.
Chinchilla explained that PTSD can be difficult to diagnose because it often
occurs in conjunction with related disorders like memory problems, sexual
dysfunction, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or substance abuse.
Physical symptoms include headaches, gastrointestinal and immune system
problems, fatigue, dizziness or chest pain.
The symptoms develop in the days and weeks following exposure to an ordeal,
and the person often feels overwhelmed or numb, dissociating themselves from
the trauma - a psychological defence mechanism against going mad, said
Chinchilla.
This "emotional anaesthesia" can last for days or months, she added.
But a reporter with blunted emotions can no longer reflect the pain suffered
by others, and can do a great deal of harm through their work, warned the
psychologist. "When you stop being moved by the people with whom you enter
into contact, you must realise that you have become numb" and seek out help,
she underlined.
"If you cannot connect with that person's pain, people will learn nothing
from your reporting. Your work will completely lose its quality. The main
job of a reporter in a war is to transmit the pain that people are
suffering," she said.
The 16 men and four women taking part in the workshop in Arauca paid close
attention to the description of what is probably happening to them, although
they did not admit it publicly.
"You cannot contribute to society's mental health if you yourself suffer
from pain, resentment, rancour," said Chinchilla. "You (journalists) help
shape the conscience of the nation. If you are sick, you will project that
socially."
"A news item takes only a few minutes to report, but badly presented, its
impact can last for decades," she added.
"The ideal is to react immediately after suffering from a traumatic
situation. It is also important for journalists to recognise their own
limitations: where is your limit, how much pain can you handle before you
get sick," she said.
Colombian journalists are not yet aware of how vulnerable they are
psychologically. But by the end of Chinchilla's workshop, only one reporter
dared even joke that he did not suffer from PTSD.
And the next day, as the seminar continued, the reporters openly admitted to
each other as they chatted in small groups that they realised that this was
what they had been suffering.
Chinchilla said that in each workshop, participating reporters approach her
timidly, desperately seeking help. But they invariably request a private
appointment, and avoid speaking out in public.
(END/2004)
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