Western Morning News (Saturday)
On Saturday How should media react to tragedies?
MOST people remember where they were when significant tragedies happened. As a journalist, my memories are perhaps clearer than most because as well as my emotional reaction I can still recall the professional response I had to make to those grave events.
I wasn’t actually working as a reporter when The Herald Of Free Enterprise disaster struck in 1987. But at the time I worked for Townsend Thoresen, the company which operated the ferry.
Working for the company in the aftermath of the disaster I got a valuable insight into how both responsible and irresponsible reporting can effect a wounded community.
When I started working on the local newspaper just a few months later, the pain of the tragedy was still extremely raw.
But there were still many stories to be told about a night in which 193 passengers and crew died, many of them local.
It came as a massive relief that the sensitive reporting by the local media immediately after the sinking had instilled a confidence in the people of Dover which meant they didn’t only want to talk to a journalist from the local newspaper but were happy to do so. That experience shaped my future professional belief that a considered response to reporting a tragedy or disaster is far better than the lure of rushing out halftruths and unsubstantiated facts for the sake of newspaper sales.
On the night of the ferry disaster I was having a drink in a pub with some friends. It was a Friday in March and I remember exactly where I was standing at the bar when the pub’s payphone started ringing with the terrible news.
Fast forward to 2021 and I was sitting in another bar about to take the first sip of a drink when my mobile phone started to buzz with the news of the Keyham shooting.
While there have been many other big local and national incidents to report on in the interim, it was quickly clear that the incident in Plymouth was on a level closer to that of Zeebrugge, than anything in the last 30 years.
As print editor of The Herald, the sister title of the WMN, I had a responsibility to make sure it was reported in the next day’s paper with both accuracy and empathy.
But time and technology have moved on a lot and even before I’d rushed back to my home office and computer, the world knew about the events in Plymouth and there were some sensational reports coming out about what had happened.
That left me wondering whether it was just a little bit futile to try to report events that would also look very different by the time The Herald hit the streets the next morning.
Of course it wasn’t futile, it was essential the paper reported on something so horrific yet so momentous.
And, despite a rush to deadline, The Herald hit the streets yesterday with an accurate early report of what had happened.
Meanwhile our sister website Plymouth Live continued to provide updates through the night, while again sticking to the known facts, and refusing to publish speculation.
In the meantime the national media were having a field day.
But while Plymouth and Keyham will be in the international spotlight for a few more days, The Herald will be telling this story for some time to come.
And we can do so knowing we didn’t trample over the hearts and souls of our community for the sake of a better headline.
A considered response to reporting a tragedy is far better than the lure of rushing out half-truths