Media Access to Emergencies – Command, Control or Co-Ordination?

1. Media Access to Emergencies – Command, Control or Co-Ordination? Michael EburnSchool of Law

2. Two questions… • Can the emergency services: • Prohibit the media from accessing a disaster area? • And/or • Can they prevent the media from broadcasting material obtained at the disaster site?

3. The emergency services • Have an obligation to protect people from death or injury caused by the hazard. • Have to ensure safety of people at their ‘workplace’ which includes the emergency area. • To meet these obligations, they may order people to leave, or stay out of, the emergency area.

4. In NSW • The Fire Brigades may “… cause to be removed any person … [who] might … interfere with the work of any fire brigade or the exercise of any of the officer’s functions.” • The SES may “… if satisfied that it is necessary or convenient to do so for the purpose of responding to an emergency … direct … a person … to leave …[or] not to enter the emergency area …”

5. The power to evacuate and exclude • These are not general powers to order people ‘out’. • The power exists only when it is required to ensure the safe and efficient response to the incident.

6. The media • Has important functions too. • Reporting on floods and fires that may threaten homes and lives is in the public interest. • The emergency services rely on the media to communicate messages about what areas are at risk and what people exposed to the risk should do to prepare for oncoming events.

7. The conflict! • The media display “cavalier media attitudes, a focus on sensation and gore, intrusiveness at the disaster scene, the twisting of facts to fit a convenient model or preconception, and a tendency to ignore the emergency services’ side of the story.”

8. Emergency managers are “high-handed, secretive with information, claiming ‘ownership’ of an event of public interest and cordoning it off from public scrutiny, and being generally untrusting and unhelpful.” • Keys, Chas, 1993, ‘Uneasy Bedfellows: Emergency Managers and the Media’ 8(2) The Macedon Digest 12-14.

9. Command and control! • The Emergency controller tellsthe media what to do, where to go, and what to show! • This wont work –

10. Why not? • Emergency services personnel do not have the legal power to restrict media access to disaster or emergency areas except where that is required for safety or operational reasons; • Emergency services personnel do not have the legal power to dictate to media staff what they may or may not film, record or report on.

11. If the media go too far, it is up to the media enforcement agencies, such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority and, in some cases, the police to enforce the rules. • The ESO is not the ‘protector of all’.

12. Coordination is the only option • People have a legitimate reason to be in harm’s way. • If reporting the disaster is in the public interest the media have a legitimate right to be there, too.

13. AFEAC • “As the print and electronic media are a primary means of providing information to the community, and media organisations have a legitimate right to information regarding fire events, fire agencies should facilitate their access to relevant information and fire events. Fire agencies should manage media access to firegrounds to provide for the safety of media crews.” • AFAC, 2005, Position Paper on Bushfires and Community Safety,

14. Compare • The media and the military with • The media and the emergency services • Although there may be tension between the services and the media, they in fact need each other to do their job.

15. Embedding • The US military ‘embedded’ journalists during the Iraq war. • Allowed journalists to access the fighting, to see the troops in action and to report what they wanted. • “The process of embedding media served to break down some of the preconceived notions and prejudices that the military and media industries had towards one another by educating both sides on the duties and responsibilities of the other.”Oehl, Michael J., 2004, ‘Embedded Media: Failed Test or the Future of Military-Media Relations?’

16. Emergency service organisations • Need to work with the media to facilitate access to, and understanding of, information relating to any particular incident. • Facilitating media to access may • improve the relationship, • facilitate the spread of vital information and • allow the story, good and bad, of the response to be told for the mutual benefit of the media and the emergency services.

17. Conclusions • The media have a legitimate interest in reporting on incidents and emergencies and • The emergency services do not have the legal right to control their access (except for safety and operational reasons) or to restrict what is reported

18. The emergency services need to coordinate with the media. They need to facilitate access in the same way they would assist others with a legitimate interest to access the disaster area. • The media and emergency services organisations must coordinate their response. The emergency services do not have the legal power to take any other approach.

19. Thank you for your attention • Questions? • Contact: • Michael Eburn • School of Law • University of New England • ARMIDALE NSW 2351 • P: (02) 6773 3701 • E: meburn@une.edu.au