Don't be a jerk Guidelines for ethical and sustainable collaboration among reporters, fixers, and local producers covering warzones

Media professionals’ mental well being and ill health are often discussed as subjects of psychol-ogy or psychiatry This chapter shifts the attention to the fundamentally sociological, social, organisational, and work- related character of the problem of journalists’ mental well being or ill- health (Kotišová, 2019) while focusing on conflict reporting.
If you are a journalism student or a media professional planning to cover conflicts and wars across the world, you might need to work with local producers, fixers, or translators— or you might find your-self in the role of a fixer or a producer. This chapter provides a series of research- based tips1 for foreign and local reporters, fixers, and producers covering conflicts and explaining the best— psychosocially sensitive and sustainable— practices of collaboration within transnational teams covering conflict zones. The tips and questions to address before going to a warzone should help you avoid unintended harm to your (local) collaborators and yourself, make your work more ethical and transparent, and maintain good long- term relationships with the conflict reporting community.