HEST: Hostile Environment Safety Training

Overview

As a journalist, you need to be well equipped physically and mentally to face potential dangers when reporting in unsafe and unpredictable situations.

You will acquire the tools and knowledge needed to assess danger in war zones, areas of civil unrest and also urban uprisings, humanitarian crises, terrorist attacks as well as natural disasters.

HEST addresses your questions on safety, trauma and stress while you prepare stories under simulated hostile environments, in both rural and urban settings.

WHO IT'S FOR

• Journalist, reporter, correspondent
• Cameraman working in the field and
  technical staff
• Head of foreign news desk

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses when reporting in hostile environments
• Better assess the risks of operating in extreme conditions
• Acquire essential tools to handle stress and safety
• Exchange experiences in a stimulating environment

SCHEDULE

MONDAY

• Collection of participants between 13:00 and 13:30 at Munich airport, please ensure that your flight lands by no later than 12:30
• Reception and introduction to situation awareness and personal security module at 15:30 at the Castle Hexenagger

FRIDAY

• Course ending time: 16:30
• Back to Munich airport at 18:00

CONTENT OUTLINE

• Situation awareness and personal security
• Planning how to get a story
• Logistics and safety planning
• Basic life-support course
• Avoiding kidnap, surviving abduction
• Stress management
• Working with the military
• Practical training in civil disturbance and operating safety in high risk urban areas
• Practical training in a conflict environment
• Medical and first aid (gunshot wound, heavy bleeding, broken limbs)

TRAINING TEAM

Objective Safety Travel professionals, including:

• Former senior officers
• Trainers and operators from the British Special Forces
• Front-line media professionals
• Specialists in technical and IT security
• Medical experts