Yes thanks.
There is a section of dealing with the media.
"You need to encourage their cooperation and avoid antagonizing them by being
dismissive. If managed properly, the media can be extremely helpful. If managed poorly
they can be very damaging.
If you can find friends, family members or employees who have contacts within media
organizations, you may be able to use them to suppress coverage of an incident.
However, you still need to have a contingency plan in place for handling the media.
Update it regularly as an incident develops.
Preparation
• Nominate which individuals will form the crisis management team in the event of an incident.
• Select and train somebody to act as a spokesperson. Have a second person as
backup in case the spokesperson is not available at the time of the incident.
• Companies with operations outside their home country should have a trained
spokesperson at head office and in each country.
• Make sure there is a dedicated phone line for handling media calls during an incident.
It should have recording equipment attached.
• Make sure you have the equipment available to monitor radio, television, newspaper
and internet reports.
• Put together a contact list of senior people within the local press, radio and TV stations.
During an incident
If members of the public have witnessed the incident, you won’t have much time before the
media makes contact. You will need to action a media management plan straight away.
• Brief your spokesperson about the incident.
• Give the spokesperson’s name and contact details to the rest of the company and the
victim’s family. Brief them not to speak to the media but to refer any inquiries to this
spokesperson.
• Have a defensive media statement ready to use.
• Identify questions that the media might ask and prepare a questions and answers document.
• Review and update your defensive media statement, and questions and answers
documents regularly as the incident develops.
• Ensure that any statements and questions and answers documents are sent to the
nominated spokesperson in other relevant countries. It is important that the same
message is given out throughout the organization.
• Monitor newspapers, magazines, radio, television and internet sites for any coverage
of the incident. The crisis management team will have to decide whether to correct
any inaccurate or speculative reporting, or to ignore it.
• Make sure there is ongoing communication between the spokesperson and the
crisis management team. Spokespersons abroad must keep the main spokesperson
briefed on any developments where they are.
• The spokesperson must work closely with the crisis management team and mutually
agree on any statements or questions and answers documents.
Defensive media statements
• Information given to journalists must be factually correct. Avoid disclosing anything
sensitive that could endanger the life of the hostage, be detrimental to the morale of
their family or company members, or could hinder negotiations with the kidnappers.
News of a kidnap
can become public
knowledge fast.
16 Crisis management corporate guidelines
Before giving any information to a journalist you must
• Establish their credentials.
• Ask what information they already have.
• Clarify the sources of that information.
If the journalist has background knowledge you should
• Admit that there has been a kidnap.
• Relate publicly known facts concerning the abduction.
• State that it would be dangerous to make any further comment as someone’s life is in
danger.
• Seek understanding and sympathy.
• Request responsible reporting. Stress that this is in the best interest of the victim and
their family during a highly emotional and stressful time.
• Refuse to speculate.
No details should be provided about
• The kidnappers’ demands.
• Your negotiating strategy.
• Contact with law enforcement agencies.
• The victim, other than to confirm his/her identity.
• Any information about the victim’s family.
• The assets of the company or the victim’s family. This must be played down.
If the journalist is investigating a rumor
• Express surprise at the call.
• State that you are not aware of the rumor and ask what information they have.
• Thank them for the call and say that you will look into it.
• Ask for contact details so you can call back once you have investigated the situation.
Note: If there is a large volume of calls, the crisis management team must decide whether
to continue to handle them individually or issue a verbal or written statement.
Using the media to advantage
During a kidnap there are times when you can use the media to send a message to the
kidnappers, or to let the hostage know that he/she has not been forgotten. This may be
necessary during a lengthy kidnap in order to break a period of silence, or pressure the
kidnappers to prove that the victim is alive and well.
To achieve this you can:
• broadcast veiled messages and music over radio stations (hostage ‘morale boosters’).
• ask a friendly journalist or broadcaster to issue a general news item on the kidnapping
that does not directly implicate the victim’s family or your company.
• arrange an emotional interview with a close family member of the victim.
• broadcast or publish an article about the emotional stress the family is suffering,
without involving them directly".
