- Many reporters are daily potentially exposed to the coronavirus as part of their fact-finding missions.
- 20 Minutes interviewed several journalists to find out how they felt about this situation.
- Journalists on the ground feel a sense of pride and duty.
We see them on television, strolling through empty streets, immersed with caregivers in hospitals, or holding out their microphone now wearing a windscreen, at the end of a long pole. Reporters are among the professions exposed to the epidemic. Are they worried about themselves? Do they have the impression of going to report as we are going "to the front"? Do they feel protected enough?
Mathilde Dehimi, reporter for France Inter, has always used to spend her days outside. And that hasn't changed much with the coronavirus. For the past week, she has been out every day to work, even if she organizes herself to avoid going back to the editorial office. She was one of the first journalists exposed to the virus, sent to the Oise at the start of the crisis. There was a certain anxiety, she tells us (by phone, of course) to work there, with equipment - hydroalcoholic gel, masks and gloves - which only arrived during the mission in early March. "I became a barrier gesture methodist," she explains.
"It was his personal reserve"
Even without necessarily being at the heart of the cyclone, near the sick, many reporters find themselves outside, continuing to ensure the transmission of information, without always having protective equipment. Such is the case of Willy Graff, a newsman at L'Est Républicain , in Besançon, who continues, for example, to go to court to report on immediate appearances.
His drafting quickly found itself in a “gel bay” of hydroalcoholic. But how to blame him? "She struggled to find us gear," he says. The journalist knows that the means of protection are worth gold today. He takes care to distance himself from the lawyers he interviews. "We have the protection we decide to have," he says, a philosopher. Sophie, another local press reporter, received a mask and a few gloves from her boss, but, she says, "it was her personal reserve, it was given to her by her nursing mother". However, she always had gel and wipes.
Even in the epicenter of the hurricane, Martin Lavielle, JRI (journalist and image reporter) at France Télévisions, "felt very protected". He recounts his report at the Angers University Hospital: “All day long we wandered around in masks. And at the University Hospital we had a blouse, overcoat, gloves, mask, protective glasses… Once the report is finished, we get rid of the equipment in a bin and we disinfect the filming equipment. "
Too much or too little protection?
Some newsrooms have taken drastic measures. "There is no question of going out and going to report, unless absolutely necessary and permission of the editorial management," says Gilles van Kote, in this behind the scenes article in the newspaper Le Monde . It's the same thing at 20 Minutes : “The instruction is not to report, as much for your own safety as for compliance with collective instructions. They are only possible on an exceptional basis and must all be subject to validation by the editor-in-chief, ”explained the editor, Armelle Le Goff, in an e-mail addressed to all of writing.
Too much or too little protection? If at France Télévisions, the SNJ (National Synidcat of journalists) estimates that the employees are confronted with "major flaws in the device for preventing contamination", and calls for more security measures, at Radio France it 'reverse: "The precautionary principle has been pushed beyond reasonable and understandable," regrets the same union. "We are simply asking you to authorize us to do our work: local radio", say the employees of France Bleu Drôme Ardèche for example.
At LCI, the number of field reporters may be "slightly reduced", says its editorial director, Valérie Nataf, but journalists are not prevented from leaving. Strict instructions have been given, however, and the teams are formed in pairs, which allows, if one of the two people reports symptoms, to confine only two reporters.
Fears and instructions
All the reporters we interviewed said that they never had any pressure to go to the field. This is the case of Viken Kantarci, JRI at AFP, back from ten days of reporting in the East, where he covered the construction of the field hospital in Mulhouse. He has been in quarantine since Saturday, because he "probably caught" the coronavirus, but feels "very well surrounded by (his) box": "We were given masks, gel, instructions on how to position, the limits of the exercise: what the box accepted that we do or not. And we receive newsletters almost every day, reminding us how to do it. He says he received masks the day before the confinement.
Fear is more or less present in these reporters. Willy Graff says he is “vigilant”, Sophie is a little worried after having covered a tour of a communal social action center with many elderly people, but now says she is reassured: “Deep down I was stressed , all the news on the radio was scary, I was not well. There it gets better. I know more that are doing too, I have a girlfriend who got it and got out. "Especially since the fear of being contaminated adds the responsibility of not contaminating others:" This weighs in decisions every day, we must be very careful not to be a danger for anyone Explains Mathilde Dehimi.
More "space for freedom of thought"
And the risk is not only health, it is also psychological. Some journalists sometimes crack, like Hoda Kotb, star of the NBC channel. She collapsed in tears after an interview with a member of an American football team, who had just announced a donation of five million dollars to fight against the spread of coronavirus in the United States.
The French are overexposed to information on the coronavirus. But for journalists, it's even worse. “What is difficult is to have the impression of never getting out of this. The information, we do it, we receive it and we no longer live by it, explains Viken Kantarci. It can be quite anxiety-provoking, not having space for freedom of thought. We feel that things can easily degenerate, that everything is very unstable… Emotionally, because we are alone, but also professionally because we don't know how it works. will evolve. And we are all permanently dying. "
A “sacred union”
Despite this agonizing period, reporters are helped in their mission by a feeling, that of being useful, and of fulfilling a mission of "public service". These are the words of Willy Graaf, who adds: "We know we are in the middle of something huge and we want to be there, my colleagues and I are proposing even more subjects, we are super mobilized, I want to work every day, all the time. Several journalists interviewed told us that they had experienced strong moments, where a sort of "sacred union" occurred within the editorial staff. Where you work until late, without wanting to leave, with the feeling of living in a historic moment.
"I'm only looking forward to being able to be outside because I escape the gloom of living things only virtually," adds Viken Kantarci. I am convinced that the profession of journalist gives you a justification for being in front of the world. "
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