After the dramatic earthquake, the testimony of our special envoys Willy Moreau and Thibault Lefevre on their work in southern Turkey, on the Syrian border.
Gain the theater of desolation, describe what we see, question the survivors and, after the emotion of the first hours, scan the organization of the relief, what works and does not work in the after tragedy. There is like a mechanism that repeats itself in the journalistic treatment of a natural disaster.
profession reporter, it is often a dilemma. We are here facing someone who has lost everything and is reaching out, and what is in our hand is a microphone that wants to speak, the little that is left for the person who is trying to stand up. I remember, in 2009, my inability to work. It was at L’Aquila in Italy. There was only pain and what childish question could I ask the haggard victims sitting under the tents of the civil protection? So, not too hard? Can you tell what happened to you? And how to tell the unspeakable, people were sleeping, they didn’t understand anything, it started shaking and everything collapsed. I had decided not to solicit anyone, the microphone was in sight, it could serve as an outlet and that’s what happened. The victims who wanted to free themselves from a burden, came to testify spontaneously. Here, the reporter who must ask the right questions must also know how to be silent, and everything is played in the looks, but not false compassion, authenticity, understanding and empathy as accurately as possible in these sensitive and confused moments. .
Should I put the microphone down?
In Turkey, Thibault Lefevre and their fixer journalists are in the same situation. As rescuers cleared away, families waited. And moments like Friday morning when a man and his eight-year-old daughter are pulled from the rubble, those moments are extremely rare. In the time that flies and reduces the chances of survival, it is very cold and the individuals struck in their sleep were in pajamas, it is difficult to hold on in this icy atmosphere. Then the recovered bodies join the body bags amidst tears and cries of pain. But the question of the report, it is not only the testimony of the survivor, of the disaster victim sleeping in his car, or of the mother who has lost everything, it is also the critical look at the relief organizations and the in charge. Willy Moreau of franceinfo was particularly shocked by the reaction time of public security. Two days before really starting the clearing operations. Two days when everything around you is urgent. Public management is quickly singled out. And NGOs quickly appear powerless in the face of the magnitude of the disaster.
So the reporter finds himself faced with another case of conscience. Should we put down the microphone, and take food, diapers and water to bring to the victims they are going to see, where the Syrian fixers live, former journalists from Aleppo, today in a refugee camp in Gaziantep and helping Western journalists sent there. Should the distribution of aid, even relative, be combined with the production of one’s report?
This question, each reporter asks himself and lets his own sensitivity answer the problem posed.