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

Location

Training Base Weeze GmbH & Co. KG

Flughafen-Ring 16, 47652 Weeze, Dusseldorf, Germany.

Schedule

The course lasts three and a half days at the Weeze training base.

Day One

Assemble at Weeze Training Centre, Training Base Weeze GmbH & Co. KG

Flughafen-Ring 16, 47652 Weeze, Germany

• Please arrive by 13:30 and check in to hotel accommodation.
• The meeting arrangement with the instructors will be confirmed nearer the time.
• The hotel is the Best Deal Airport Hotel (will be booked by EBU as part of registration)
• Course commences at 14:00

Programme Outline

• Situation awareness and personal security
• Pre-assignment planning and preparation
• Basic life-support course
• Medical and first aid (gunshot wound, heavy bleeding, broken limbs)
• Weapons and ballistics
• Working in disaster zones
• Avoiding kidnap, surviving abduction
• Emotional trauma
• Practical training in civil disturbance and operating safety in high-risk urban areas

Travel to Weeze Training Base

The easiest way to travel to Weeze is by car

Air

Weeze Airport Ryanair has flights from Italy, Portugal & North Africa

Dusseldorf Airport. Complicated local trains and buses, best by taxi, approximately 1-hour journey. 

Training team

Objective Travel Safety, including:

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

Certification

After completing the modules, you will be awarded an EBU Academy Certificate