EPR-Public Communications L-013

1. EPR-Public CommunicationsL-013 Roles and Coordination of Information

2. Objective • To understand the functions of different government bodies; • To review and cope with the challenges in coordinating information between these bodies.

3. Outline • Local authorities; • National authorities; • International authorities; • Roles in public communications; • Coordinating public communications.

4. Local authorities • Local authorities are responsible for: • Evacuation planning; • Establishing community shelters; • Providing care for those affected, including food, emergency supplies and medical treatment; • Providing ongoing to the local community during the recovery phase of the emergency; • Managing long term economic impacts on local tourism, industry and property values.

5. Local authorities – continued • Community organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations, such as the Red Cross, may also provide assistance to local authorities; • Depending on the scale and duration of the emergency, some of these responsibilities may be assumed by another level of government.

6. Local authorities – public information • Citizens will look to their local governments for information about any emergency in their community; • Local authorities will expect and be expected to communicate about what they are doing; • Media and public interest will be most intense if there is an evacuation or during the recovery phase.

7. Local authorities – public information • Media may also seek out local officials to comment on the effectiveness of the response; • Local authorities will be an important source of information about the community and any unique concerns; • These authorities may also have useful methods and tools for providing information to the community or specific groups.

8. National authorities • National response plans should include the roles and responsibilities of the different organizations involved in a response to a radiation emergency; • The response plan should include how information to be provided to the media and public will be coordinated between the different organizations, including the operator, and levels of government that may be involved.

9. National authorities • Response structure, using Incident Command System or similar structure, should be used to coordinate public communications functions between the response organizations; • Public communications must be coordinated at the national level to avoid any contradictory messages or misinformation between national organizations;

10. National authorities – public information • National authorities should develop the following, which will be important for preparing for public information activities in the event of a radiation emergency: • Emergency response organization—roles and responsibilities; • Contacts for information; • Information for the public, including URLs and phone numbers; • Monitoring, surveillance and laboratory services; • Dose assessment capacity; • Response planning (medical capacity, protective and response actions); • National intervention levels and explanation of countermeasures;

11. International authorities • Member States are required to notify the possibly affected states directly or through the IAEA of any radiation emergency, when a release of radiation may cross national boundaries; • The IAEA, in turn, will notify all State Parties and Member States and offer assistance to National Authorities in response to a radiation emergency affecting their territory.

12. International authorities • Member States party to the Early Notification and Assistance Conventions must provide a point of contact and competent authority to the IAEA; • In the event of an emergency the reporting forms (for fax or on the web) have a section where contact details for media calls and links to news releases can be provided to the IAEA for further dissemination to Member States.

13. International authorities • There is a plan to coordinate international response activities of several United Nations organizations and other relevant international or multinational organizations; • The Joint Radiation Emergency Management Plan of the International Organizations describes the objectives of response, the organizations involved, their roles and responsibilities, interfaces, operational concepts and preparedness arrangements; • The various organizations then reflect these in their own emergency plans.

14. Roles in public communications • Communicating during an emergency is fraught with challenges: • highly motivated media and public looking for information quickly; • Response organizations requiring time to confirm details and plan their response; • Pressure from political level to provide information. • Any organization involved in responding to an emergency should provide information ONLY about their role and responsibilities; • All involved in the response—local, national, international must follow this guiding principle to avoid providing contradictory information.

15. Coordinating public communications • Within the Incident Command System, PIOs from different organizations involved in the response can work together in a unified PIOgroup; • Each organization should provide a liaison officer to the PIO group, so that information released and activities planned can be coordinated in advance; • The lead responding organization could chair this group and report to the Incident Commander.

16. Coordinating public communications • An emergency specific website or web portal should be established; • Need to plan in advance, particularly for website or portal to handle high level of hits; • Links to sites of responding organizations could then be made.

17. Coordinating public communications • Need to consider how to best coordinate beyond the response organization—with local and national authorities; • Develop arrangements to coordinate in advance; • These arrangements should be included in organization specific plans; • Exercise the arrangements.

18. Coordinating public information • Include public communications contacts when providing notification to the IAEA through the Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies (USIE); • Provide website links and media contacts as soon as possible should an emergency occur; • Request for international assistance can include for public information support.

19. Summary • Organizations must plan their public communications activities in advance; • Roles and responsibilities between the organizations involved in the response – at the local and national level – must be established.

20. Summary • Organizations must plan how they will coordinate their activities and information provided to the public and media; • In the event of a radiation emergency, notification to the IAEA should include national media contacts; • Consideration should be given to providing public communications contacts as well, so that further coordination of activities between affected states can be undertaken.

21. Final Thought When your are not responding, you should be planning how to respond.