Airwaves of compassion 
Alan Heil*

International broadcasters have extensively covered the Indian Ocean tsunami, helped stimulate relief donations and assisted electronic media in the region devastated during the tragedy.

“It was a quake that literally rocked the world,” observed VOA Asia correspondent Kate Pound Dawson. “Geologists say the planet actually wobbled on its axis. And it has become the first global natural disaster in modern times, spanning a dozen countries, two continents and an entire ocean.” International broadcasters rushed to cover a cataclysm that claimed more than 220,000 lives, left tens of thousands missing or injured and millions without shelter.

Media specialist David Carr of the New York Times noted that video compression technology, fed by digital cameras linked to satellite and videophones, as well as laptops with uplink capabilities, meant that people all over the world saw the deadly aftermath of the tsunami just hours after it struck. “Real time video footage taken by tourists of the tidal wave striking the shores on or near the beaches in Thailand”, Carr added, “began showing up on network broadcasts’ almost immediately.” Everyone wanted to get pictures out dramatizing the magnitude of the disaster. There was a compelling humanitarian need to help the victims and locate the missing.

Unprecedented effort

A BBC World Service announcement observed that the 26 December tsunami prompted one of that network’s largest newsgathering efforts ever, with correspondents deployed on an unprecedented scale. “It is probably the biggest story since 9/11”, the statement continued, “because of the huge area affected, parts of which were inaccessible.”

Within hours, VOA’s central newsroom was taking in correspondent and stringer reports from Indonesia, Thailand, India and Kenya. In the first twenty-four hours, correspondents provided a steady stream of news updates and enlisted science editors to explain the history of quakes and tsunamis, the potential economic consequences of the disaster and early relief efforts. 

Indonesia was hardest hit by the tsunami and suffered the greatest losses. The Indonesian Services of the BBC World Service and VOA immediately broadcast on-scene accounts from the devastated northern Sumatran province of Aceh. VOA Jakarta bureau chief Nancy-Amelia Collins and Indonesian Service stringer Budi Nahaba arrived there hours after the disaster and immediately filed interviews for both radio and television with survivors, relief officials and a spokesman for Indonesian President Yudoyono. Menuk Suwondo, head of the BBC Indonesian Service, was one of many World Service journalists anxiously awaiting news of friends and colleagues as she managed daily in-depth programming on the story. Shortly after the tidal waves inundated northern Sumatra, she received a message from a reporter at one of the BBC’s partner stations in Banda Aceh which said: “I am alive, but the rest of the team are missing.”

Coverage

• BBC’s South India correspondent Sampath Kumar was rushed to the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and other stringers in Sri Lanka were dispatched to cover the disaster. All telephone lines in Colombo were down, so they transmitted reports back to London via shortwave. E-mails to the World Service’s Chennai office surged to 65,000 a day – an eightfold increase on 26 and 27 December.
• VOA’s Africa Division interviewed Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohammed Ismail on its television programme, TV to Africa, and its English to Africa and Swahili services. The spokesman said entire coastal towns in the Puntland area of northern Somalia had been swept away by the tsunami and left thousands homeless. He appealed for “any and all aid” from the international community.
• The Spanish Branch at the Voice responded to dozens of requests from affiliate stations for phone feeds on the tsunami. The Branch broadcast phone numbers of Spanish speakers at an International Committee of the Red Cross message center for Latin America inquiries about missing relatives. VOA Spanish also interviewed ICRC and World Health Organization specialists about disaster relief.     

Coordination

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union immediately mobilized, along with member stations, to assist affiliated radios destroyed or temporarily knocked off the air by the tsunami. The European Broadcasting Union asked its members to contact the ABU directly to see which assistance they could offer. The ABU joined several international broadcasters in listing websites of relief organizations appealing for donations. Several listed contact points in ministries around the Indian Ocean area where information was available about missing people. Radio Australia quickly moved to an all-news format and Commercial Radio Australia led a mission to restore broadcast operations throughout the region, contributing some 50,000 AM/FM radios to affected areas.

Radio Netherlands Indonesian Service head Indra Titus said: “We want to help get radio stations back on the air, because radio is a very important means of communication in the stricken areas. As help begins to flow, communications must be restored to assist in the search for family members and make information accessible. Even under normal circumstances, radio in Indonesia is a vital means of communications that people cannot be without.” Radio Netherlands also appealed to its 6,000 partner stations around the world to collect money and equipment.

Leading edge technologies spurred unprecedented instantaneous co-ordination among international broadcasters and non-governmental organizations. Jonathan Marks of Critical Distance BV, the Netherlands, and Andy Sennitt, international media specialist at Radio Netherlands, worked together to employ relatively new and speedy wiki technology as a global electronic bulletin board on tsunami relief. Wiki, a term that originated in Hawaii, means “easy”. Marks, Sennitt, Michael Hedges of Switzerland and Ton Zijlstra of the Netherlands, have demonstrated that a collaborative wiki website can reap huge benefits. In Marks’ words, “It can be up in an hour to exchange information among international broadcasters and NGOs on catastrophes.”

ABU at the rescue

This technology is extremely helpful over time. News of the Indian Ocean tsunami is disappearing from the headlines in both electronic and print media as reconstruction and post trauma counseling continues to be indispensable. The key long-range coordinator of sustained assistance to media in the region is Sharad Sadhu of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. The ABU so far has:

• Arranged for the initial shipment by its members of 20,000 radio sets for tsunami survivors to the capital cities of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, with assured clearances through customs.
• Appealed for donations of low power radio and TV transmitters, emergency studio equipment, portable production equipment and volunteer engineers to help tsunami-devastated stations recover.
• Organized an exchange among ABU members of educational and documentary programmes about earthquakes and tsunamis on a rights-free basis. These specials will be offered on the ABU website. 
• Publicized an emergency workshop sponsored by NHK Japan in Tokyo and the ABU from 28 February to 2 March to examine how broadcasters can relay early warnings to reduce casualties in future natural disasters.     

One of the most remarkable stories of tangible aid came from Internews Indonesia. As of 12 January, the only radio station back on the air in tsunami-ravaged Banda Aceh was using a “suitcase” transmitter, tape recorders and computer equipment supplied by a California-based firm. A second suitcase radio station was planned for Meulaboh, south-west of that provincial capital. Internews also was establishing smaller radio stations in displaced persons camps in Aceh where more than 400,000 people are resettled for an estimated one to two years. “We have our own infrastructure out here”, an Internews announcement said,“but will be looking for volunteer broadcasters and broadcast engineers paying their own way to come in for short stints to help meet this enormous challenge.”

*Alan Heil, former deputy director of VOA, is a regular contributor to The Channel and author of Voice of America: A History (Columbia University Press, 2003.) 

(Article first published in the March 2005 edition of The Channel, magazine of the Association for International Broadcasting www.aib.org.uk) 

pj / nc