((TITLE)) HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT TRAINING
((TRT: 08:22))
((Producer/Camera/Editor: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Silver Spring, Maryland))
((Main characters: 1 male; 1 female))
((Sub characters: 2 male; 3 female))
((NATS: Simulated Exercise))
Come on everybody! Keep coming! Go, go, go, go!
Do what you’re told.
((NATS))
((Varsha Thebo
Senior Advisor, Eleanor Crook Foundation))
It was actually my first time ever doing a training like this. My name is Varsha Thebo and I work for the Eleanor Crook Foundation. Because of all these blended modules that they had, they gave us techniques on how to relax yourself, calm yourself down, and in what moments can you reach for help.
((NATS: Angela Meyer, Frank Smyth))
Yeah, I do. I know you. I know you.
Phones. Everything!
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
My name is Frank Smyth. I’m the Founder and CEO of Global Journalist Security, GJS. I was working for the Committee to Protect Journalists in the 2000s, and during the Iraq war, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, a number of journalists were killed by firing, including by U.S. forces. And there was an organization that was founded in London called the International News Safety Institute.
I worked with the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ]
to have me serve on the board of that London group representing CPJ to make sure we had a voice.
And that allowed me to get a front row seat on the program of providing training to journalists.
((Courtesy: UNESCO))
And I raised the question that three out of four local journalists around the world are getting murdered outright, not dying in combat or in stepping on a landmine or been in an air strike but being murdered outright.
((NATS: Angela Meyer))
You know, give them a little like, you know, little bit. Don’t drag him to the ground.
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
By the end of the decade, I decided it was time to start my own organization to provide a different kind of training, building on the work that others had done, especially former British military personnel, providing hostile environments and emergency first aid training for civilians and in particular journalists. This didn’t exist back when I went to El Salvador for instance in the [19]80s. I got certified as an EMT [Emergency Medical Technician]
because it was the only training available. So, I appreciate what our predecessors did, but we started looking at it
with a different approach, incorporating emotional self-care into the training and stress management…
((NATS: Angela Meyer))
What’s going on inside my brain, inside my body…
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
...in a way that hadn't been done before, incorporating digital safety.
((NATS: Frank Smyth))
And what browser to use for sensitive research, right? Because some browsers are safer than others and we’re going to see that.
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
Because by the 2010s, it was clear that digital safety was becoming a major aspect of security, which has only increased, and addressing things like sexual assault, which hadn’t really been on the radar of hostile environments training before. And how to do that appropriately in a way that would be supportive of women entering the workforce and continuing to act as journalists on the front lines of conflicts, and at the same time, trying to find ways to keep everybody as safe as possible.
((NATS: Angela Meyer))
You think this is funny?
No.
Because this isn’t funny because you feel like you can just intrude on my space here.
((Varsha Thebo
Senior Advisor, Eleanor Crook Foundation))
I was feeling a little more sympathetic towards you
in the sense that I was listening because you were like, “Oh my god, leave” or something like that. So, I was like, “Oh, I’m understanding you.” In my head, I was like applying the lesson, you know, understanding where they’re coming from, things like that. That was totally stupid, but how…what…is that a good tactic to have in this kind of situation?
((Angela Meyer
Empowerment Director, Global Journalist Security))
You know, what we’re talking about here when my, you know, body like shaky or like voice is changing, you know, and again, it’s paying attention to your gut too. So, here we’re giving you all like little tools, like planting little seeds because you’re going to be the one in the moment that’s going to then make the best decision for you.
((Angela Meyer
Empowerment Director, Global Journalist Security))
My name is Angela Meyer. I am the GJS Empowerment Director. We’re putting, you know, the clients through real life scenarios.
((NATS: Angela Meyer))
I told you and your group that it is not safe to be here.
((Angela Meyer
Empowerment Director, Global Journalist Security))
You know, they know are not real, but physiologically it can feel real.
((NATS: Angela Meyer))
I’m going to get you fired. That’s a promise. Soldiers let’s go.
((Angela Meyer
Empowerment Director, Global Journalist Security))
So, often times, you know, people get triggered from past experiences. So, I’m the one that is then sitting with them, counseling them, if you will, for those next steps.
((NATS: Angela Meyer))
Awareness of how you are in the moment…physically,
mentally, emotionally, soulfully…is power.
((Paul Burton
Training Director, Global Journalist Security))
Then you got your detonator here.
I’m Paul Burton, the Training Director for GJS. We only have three days to teach things.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
Okay, we’ve got a mortar round on the right.
((Paul Burton
Training Director, Global Journalist Security))
So, we've got to whittle it down and only teach what they really need and what they can remember.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
To your right.
((Paul Burton
Training Director, Global Journalist Security))
And then they remember it and then they can use it.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
Unless there is a life-threatening problem here, like she’s in a burning car or something.
((NATS))
((Karen Hardee
President, Hardee Associates))
That was amazing. And is probably going to be the most useful exercise all of us could do, because the chances of a car accident on the road in those countries is…
I mean, I really didn't know that if you bleed out, you're dead in three minutes. And that massive bleeding through the arteries is something that absolutely has to be taken care of first.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
You do not go out there and get shot.
So, the first sound is the bullet just missing you.
((Wataru Namiki
Journalist, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television))
My name is Wataru Namiki and I’m working for a Japanese TV station based in Tokyo. I have a chance to go to Israel in [the] future. So, I imagine the most situation where some really excited people will gather around, and then how I had better to act. So, it’s a good lesson for me.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
A sniper can’t have his eye up on the scope all day long.
So, how are we going to get across?
Go!
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
You've got to constantly make sure that the scenarios are realistic.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
So, keep your eyes open.
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
And also they’re challenging.
((NATS: Paul Burton))
Oh, okay. The vehicle is immobilized. It’s stopped. Everybody out.
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
And there's ways that people can find their agency in every scenario, whatever that may be. And that's something they sometimes have to discover for themselves, I think, how much they can find, and how much agency they have.
((NATS))
Just tell him, “I know it’s going to hurt, but I want to raise your leg and put it up on your knee.”
((Varsha Thebo
Senior Advisor, Eleanor Crook Foundation))
Okay, I’m going to raise your leg.
Instead of freezing in the moment and not knowing what to do, this exercise or this course has actually helped me to breathe in and to spur into action at the moment. So, I'm grateful for that.
((Paul Burton
Training Director, Global Journalist Security))
Can we stay sitting in the vehicle?
No. The bullets are going to go straight the way through. So, we’ve got to get out.
((NATS))
Is something blocking your air way?
((Indre Sabaliunaite
Marshall Legacy Institute))
My name is Indre Sabaliunaite. I work with the Marshall Legacy Institute. Our mission is to help countries help themselves recover from conflict, primarily by accelerating landmine clearance operations.
The course definitely helped to prepare me for some unexpected, maybe, situation that would happen, and I think just increasing the situational awareness. Just to always be present, and to know, to see, to watch for the surroundings, how to travel safely, what to do in an emergency and so forth.
((Frank Smyth
Founder/CEO, Global Journalist Security))
I think what we're trying to do is teach people similar habits and protocols that will help them stay safe and maintain an awareness in what is increasingly a difficult and more dangerous environments, both at home and abroad.
((NATS))
