Ethical reporting guidelines

The keyword for interviewing people with trauma or people experiencing chronic stress is empathy. While we all have different backgrounds and personalities, and therefore different capacities to empathize, the good news is that empathy can be translated into practice through emotional intelligence: understanding other people’s emotions, your own emotions, and knowing how to express yourself without harming anyone.

First, keep in mind that your “sources” are complex people—not just victims. Try approaching them as fellow human beings with personal histories and dreams, rather than mere sources of information. Try to be present, actively listen, and understand; avoid an extractive approach focused solely on getting quotes for your story. Reflect on how this resonates with your own experiences, so that what occurs is a real encounter.

Second, previous research on traumatic events across a variety of contexts shows that providing interviews repeatedly can worsen survivors’ post-traumatic stress. Therefore, avoid re-interviewing already exhausted witnesses, survivors, and victims.

Third, make sure you know why you are covering this particular story, and ensure your interviewee understands what you hope to achieve and accepts your reasons, goals, and their role in it. Do not promise change that you cannot deliver. People are often motivated to talk to journalists because they believe that sharing their story can galvanize global audiences and leaders into action or speed up processes leading to justice and accountability. While media narratives can feed into judicial processes or, indeed, change the course of history, these outcomes are not always entirely under your control.

Fourth, make sure you have plenty of time and a calm, private space for the interview. When interviewing, try to formulate questions in a sensitive, open way, so that the person that you interview has as much power over their narrative as possible. For example, instead of asking, "How did your husband die?", ask, "Would you like to tell me what happened?" Think carefully about whether you really need to take the person back to a particularly traumatic moment. Giving interviewees as much power over their story as possible throughout the process can help prevent retraumatization.

Fifth, carefully evaluate the consequences of publishing your interviewee’s narrative or images, all the more so when interviewing particularly vulnerable people, such as children or survivors of sexual violence. This also means continuously renegotiating the interviewee’s informed consent with being part of your story. The informed consent procedure involves asking before switching on a voice recorder (and taking notes if the interviewee does not want to be recorded) or protecting your interviewees’ personal and sensitive data in a previously agreed-upon way. Think about encryption of communication and files, pseudonymization, safe storage space, and the software you use for managing your interviewee’s data.

Sixth, think in advance about the extent to which—and with what exactly—you are willing to help. At times, providing useful information, contact, or simply listening can be more helpful and consistent with your journalistic principles than supporting your interviewees financially or materially. However, getting involved does not automatically turn you into a bad journalist. Many great, legitimate journalists agree that they cannot remain neutral and disengaged face to face this major crisis, and choose to help with humanitarian efforts.

These tips are by no means exhaustive, and there are also specific tips depending on whether you interview a person who survived sexual violence or torture, an internally displaced person, or the bereaved. If you want to know more, you will find many useful resources on the Global Center for Journalism & Trauma's website.

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You might need to work with locals: local producers, photographers, journalists, fixers, translators, drivers. 

First, keep reminding yourself that many of them are more knowledgeable about the context and history than you are. Their knowledge is embodied. They have lived through the history of the war, and their everyday life has been affected by it. Perhaps they lost a loved one to the war or have been displaced from the temporarily occupied territories, while their families still live there.

Second, do not call your collaborators automatically "fixers." If you do not know how they advertise their services, ask them how they want you to refer to their job. Local producer? Associate producer? News assistant? Fixer? Journalist? Very often, these "fixers"—a term connoting plumbers or unskilled workers—have degrees from elite universities and speak multiple languages. You may well work with someone bright and wise, even if they speak English or French with an accent. They are sometimes experienced journalists, producers, or photographers. Their work is by no means simple: they mediate between cultures. And to do this, they need to be sensitive and have other special skills.

Third, be humble. Respect your collaborators’ knowledge and learn from it. Ask them questions. Be curious about what they think regarding the person whose answers they just translated, including their accent and choice of words. Be interested in how to approach local citizens. Let your collaborators decide when the right moment is to start filming. Discuss your stories, angles, and draft texts with them before releasing them. Make sure they agree that the final piece is accurate. 

Fourth, do not automatically assume that your local collaborators are "biased." Their "bias" does not necessarily mean that they will distort the information they give you or arrange interviews with only one type of source. Rather, they will not recommend people who speak blatant untruths and will not slip into a "five minutes for Hitler, five minutes for the Jews" understanding of journalistic objectivity. Research shows that the combination of Ukrainian local newsworkers’ embeddedness and experience with international teams often leads to a critical perspective on their context. They want the context to become better – that is why they are usually very skilled at critical thinking and even manage to maintain a bird’s eye view. It is sometimes the foreign journalists—your colleagues—who come to Ukraine equipped with stereotypical story ideas and ready-made opinions. That is to say, with bias.

Fifth, your foreign colleagues are often equipped also with flak jackets, helmets, war zone insurance, money, and the symbolic capital of being a journalist from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, or France. While Ukrainian journalists and producers often do have access to the equipment, getting war insurance to work in their own country is much more difficult, if not impossible. As locals, they do not have the symbolic capital like journalists from the so-called elite nations. They did not choose to be at war; it is just the hand they were dealt. Therefore, respect their limits and go only as far as they want to go. Respect their worries. If you wish to sleep on the frontline, do so, but do not force your local collaborators to stay with you.

Sixth, if you are on an assignment or work trip, try to persuade your outlet to provide your collaborators with the same protection as you have. It is only fair to be on the same level. None of these forms of protection, taken individually—helmets, vests, insurance, training—will guarantee you stay alive. But as a whole, they matter.

Seven, if your local collaborator attracts you romantically or sexually, never express your feelings in unwanted ways.

Eight, if your medium allows that and your local collaborators agree, be transparent about how the news piece came into existence. Give your collaborators a byline. If you write a longread or a more extended news report, you can even describe their role in the newsmaking process.

Finally, you will most probably get home safely. Your collaborators will stay. Keep it in mind during your trip and after that. Once you are at home, ask them how they are, if they need anything, and be ready to help. 

Take good care of yourself. Having a few debriefing sessions with a therapist is never a shame, and there might be a lot to process. Your employer or client should pay for it and offer the same support to your Ukrainian collaborators. Allow yourself enough time to switch the context, get mentally and emotionally back.

These tips come from ongoing, long-term ethnographic research (since 2021) among foreign and local media professionals—journalists, photographers, and documentary makers—documenting the Russo-Ukrainian War. The research focused on their transnational collaborations, emotional work and labour, the work of local producers/fixers, and the work of local media professionals working on stories about core international crimes. The research has involved dozens of interviews and observations at a diversity of media events in Ukraine and other European countries. Academic work published based on the research, including methodological details, can be accessed here.