TRANSCRIPT
File: “In 30 years as a reporter I've worked in lots of places that you could describe as being on the edge. I've worked in Jerusalem. I've worked in New York. I've worked in Belfast during the troubles. But this really is a community that's on the edge.”
On the 22nd of February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch.
185 people were killed, including one Australian.
Buildings had been weakened by another earthquake the year prior, which meant the damage to infrastructure was major.
While some caught fire, others crumbled and collapsed.
“If this building comes down you have no chance, could you all go back there please. Please?”
It disrupted tens of thousands of lives and reduced 80 per cent of the city centre to rubble.
Allan Lee was sent there in the immediate aftermath.
“We arrived and there was no power. We were among the first media from outside Christchurch to arrive. There's something very disturbing about driving in on a road that you've driven in on dozens of times and all buildings have fallen down. We did the breakfast show every day with live reports in. We would then go out into the suburbs, meeting people, meeting emergency workers. Our day started at sort of 0430 in the morning, we were getting back to the hotel, sort of seven or eight o'clock at night, and then working through editing until one or two in the morning, grabbing a couple of hours' sleep and then starting again.”
Journalists are often on the frontlines of a major world event.
Whether it’s a war, a natural disaster or a pivotal election, journalists play a major role in bringing critical information to the masses.
During a natural disaster, they can fulfil multiple duties ranging from providing warnings, assessing disaster mitigation and preparedness, to aiding long-term recovery.
REPORTER 1: “I don’t think we can go past the fact that we may be witnessing New Zealand’s darkest day.”
REPORTER 2: “Absolutely covered the one under here, hopefully there’s no-one under here. All we can hear is the horn and across the way in this building here there are people trapped and they’re trying to get them out.”
There's often minimal resources, planning difficulties and tough decisions to be made.
But how can seeing and experiencing nature at its worst affect a person?
For Allan Lee, his journalism career began when the studio he was working for as an engineer wanted a younger person to present a show.
“So they said, Oh, you try it, because I was cheap. And they quite liked it. And so I did more. And then I got a job in radio. And so I was a radio presenter for several years. And I got dropped in the deep end, because they decided to put me on a news program. So I had to learn to be a journalist after being a disc jockey from scratch on the air. So it was a bit scary. Then I moved to BBC, and then I moved to BBC television. I learned on the job really, because in those days, they didn't have journalism degrees at university, because it's that long ago.”
But even after 30 years, he says no amount of work in the industry could have prepared him to cover something like this.
“I think you think you can. We figured our job was to get the story out there and to tell people what happened because obviously Christchurch was going to need billions of dollars of help. And so I guess part of our role was to explain to the rest of New Zealand why this was needed. But in terms of, can you prepare for something like that? I don't think you can prepare for seeing a place that you know and love being knocked down and being patrolled by soldiers in armoured vehicles.”
So when something so unexpected occurs, what does a journalist do?
News organisations frequently arrive to an incident at the same time as first responders but have significantly less training for the situation.
And so with no time to prepare physically or mentally for an imminent challenging working and living environment - what's the first step?
Allan was a reporter for Shine TV at the time.
“It was lunchtime. And suddenly someone stood up and called for quiet. And he said, I've got my wife on the phone, she's in the Cathedral Square in Christchurch, there's been a quake, the cathedral has come down. And there was a scrape of chairs. So I called my work and they said, Okay, get on the ferry - since I was already in Wellington - get on the ferry across to Christchurch and start filing stuff back. It was madness. So we drove down and you couldn't help but notice that we were the only car heading south and all the other cars were heading north away from Christchurch.”
When a natural disaster occurs, most people spend the aftermath coming to terms with what had happened - surveying the damage, and checking on loved ones.
But for a journalist, there is often no time to process the situation.
“We didn't really have time to think about it. I think there were moments when it hit us in terms of what we're doing. One of the things that happened was CTV, Canterbury TV, their building collapsed. Now the program that we made went out on CTV and I had a good friend who worked in the building. We never found him. We never found his body. And I think that was a moment where it came home to me that it was more than just a news story. Because now I'd lost someone that I knew and was fond of. We never found his body, ever.“
Sometimes the most affecting parts of a news report are led not by experts, not by politicians or academics… but by individuals.
The hairdresser or mechanic who saw everything, and felt everything.
Allan says those vulnerable human interactions were what mattered the most.
“There was one couple that we interviewed, a lovely couple. We went to their house and the house had tilted. And there's this horrible stuff called liquefaction that comes up. She told us about how they had both been out at work and there was a big aftershock. And they both said, no, there goes more, more of that horrible smelly liquefaction through our house. When they got home, the neighbours had all got together and cleared it out for them. She burst into tears. I burst into tears. And that was the end of that interview. I tear up now because it's just that was the thing that we really noticed was that people worked so hard as a community, they worked together.”
But what happens after it’s all over?
How can a journalist cope after being granted exclusive access to such confronting situations?
Allan says he and his colleague found it difficult to jump straight back into day-to-day reporting.
“It felt wrong to be back in Auckland, where all the buildings were at 90 degrees. And things didn't fall down unexpectedly. And I think Scott and I both felt an element of guilt because people that we had come to know quite well, some of the rescue workers, they were still down there working those horrendous hours. If a lorry went past, and you know that rumble you get when a lorry goes past the building, that's the feeling that an aftershock feels like when it begins and the rest of the rest of the organisation would laugh at me and Scott, because automatically we would hang on to the desk, just in case.”
Allan says he also noticed that even years later, it would surprise him how he could still be reminded of his time in Christchurch.
“I took my son to see a silly movie where Los Angeles was invaded by aliens and wrecked. But the architecture of California is very similar to the architecture in Christchurch, it's a lot of weatherboard houses. And I had to leave, I actually, it upset me too much. My son was old enough to leave in there, I said, I'll meet you outside. And I was surprised at that. I'm not a nervy person. But it just was upsetting me to see something that looked like Christchurch, see it being destroyed, even if it was by green aliens.”
Engineers estimate the level of damage sustained in the Christchurch disaster was a 'one-in-2,500-year' event.
And for Allan, he says he hopes covering something so unfathomable has made him a better journalist.
“I hope I'm more empathetic. I think when you see people who are on the edge, experiencing very raw emotions, you have to ask hard questions sometimes. But I think, I hope I've learned to ask those questions in a way that isn't offensive but that gets the answers that we need. And I think that what we did and what the other media did there, in telling the stories of people who were on the edge, it was important, and it was valuable. And it's part of history, and I'm glad I was there.”
