Guide for Reporting
By Yoichi Shimatsu
Comprehensive advice for Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma from an environmental issues writer and editor for news professionals bound for Japan: how to prepare, what to expect and how to keep yourself safe while reporting on the earthquake, tsunami and damaged nuclear plants.
Yoichi Shimatsu is an environmental issues writer and former editor of The Japan Times Weekly, who covered the earthquakes in San Francisco and Kobe, the Tokyo subway gassing, Mount Unzen volcanic eruption, and led a field study (while simultaneously doing rescue work as a volunteer) in the worst-hit Khao Lak region of Thailand right after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.
Summary: Japan can be a paradoxical place for reporting, even for its own journalists and longtime expats. The tendency of government agencies and corporations to impose a veil of silence and half-truths doubles the difficulties.
Habitual censorship and blanket public-security rules mean that journalists, if we are going to fulfill our professional responsibility to the public, must "bend" a few rules while minimizing the risks of openly violating the law. Your embassies are unlikely to come to your aid and, often to the contrary, may actually cooperate in curbing the foreign press. Despite these constraints, it is possible to report by stretching the outer limits of the law, which means that you’re still well within the bounds of reason.
PREPARATIONS
Radiation Medicine: Call around to pharmacies in your home country to purchase sufficient potassium iodine capsules for five-to-ten people for a month. The extra capsules are needed for your translators and drivers, as well as a good-will gesture to your local sources. Your thyroid gland absorbs iodine, and these pills help to block radioactive iodine-131. At the pharmacy also pick up some Imodium and nasal inhalant or gel (Vicks type), the latter to help reduce the foul smell of corpses, which wears down your morale.
By Yoichi Shimatsu
Comprehensive advice for Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma from an environmental issues writer and editor for news professionals bound for Japan: how to prepare, what to expect and how to keep yourself safe while reporting on the earthquake, tsunami and damaged nuclear plants.
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| PHOTO of New America Media |
Yoichi Shimatsu is an environmental issues writer and former editor of The Japan Times Weekly, who covered the earthquakes in San Francisco and Kobe, the Tokyo subway gassing, Mount Unzen volcanic eruption, and led a field study (while simultaneously doing rescue work as a volunteer) in the worst-hit Khao Lak region of Thailand right after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.
Summary: Japan can be a paradoxical place for reporting, even for its own journalists and longtime expats. The tendency of government agencies and corporations to impose a veil of silence and half-truths doubles the difficulties.
Habitual censorship and blanket public-security rules mean that journalists, if we are going to fulfill our professional responsibility to the public, must "bend" a few rules while minimizing the risks of openly violating the law. Your embassies are unlikely to come to your aid and, often to the contrary, may actually cooperate in curbing the foreign press. Despite these constraints, it is possible to report by stretching the outer limits of the law, which means that you’re still well within the bounds of reason.
PREPARATIONS
Radiation Medicine: Call around to pharmacies in your home country to purchase sufficient potassium iodine capsules for five-to-ten people for a month. The extra capsules are needed for your translators and drivers, as well as a good-will gesture to your local sources. Your thyroid gland absorbs iodine, and these pills help to block radioactive iodine-131. At the pharmacy also pick up some Imodium and nasal inhalant or gel (Vicks type), the latter to help reduce the foul smell of corpses, which wears down your morale.
