"Objective: To explore the emotional health of journalists covering the migrations of refugees across Europe. Design: Descriptive. A secure website was established and participants were given their unique identifying number and password to access the site. Setting: Newsrooms and in the field. Partic ... ipants: Responses were received from 80 (70.2%) of 114 journalists from nine news organisations. Main outcome measures: Symptoms of PTSD (Impact of Events Scale-revised), depression (Beck Depression Inventory-Revised) and moral injury (Moral Injury Events Scale-revised). Results: Symptoms of PTSD were not prominent, but those pertaining to moral injury and guilt were. Moral injury was associated with being a parent (p*=*.031), working alone (p*=*.02), a recent increase in workload (p*=*.017), a belief that organisational support is lacking (p*=*.046) and poor control over resources needed to report the story (p*=*.027). A significant association was found between guilt and moral injury (p*=*.01) with guilt more likely to occur in journalists who reported covering the migrant story close to home (p*=*.011) and who divulged stepping outside their role as a journalist to assist migrants (p*=*.014). Effect sizes (d) ranged from .47 to .71. Conclusions: On one level, the relatively low scores on conventional psychometric measures of PTSD and depression are reassuring. However, our data confirm that moral injury is a different construct from DSM-defined trauma response syndromes, one that potentially comes with its own set of long-term maladaptive behaviours and adjustment problems." (Abstract) more

"Objectives: To determine the emotional wellbeing of journalists who work in Iran. Methods: A website was established and journalists in newsrooms in Iran and the Diaspora were given information to access the site. Responses were received from 114 journalists (76 per per cent cent). The mean age was ... 37.8 years and 57 per cent were male. Primary outcomes measures: Impact of Event Scale-revised for posttraumatic stress disorder, Beck Depression Inventory-II for depression. Results: Stressors included arrest (41.2 per cent), torture (19.3 per cent), assault (10.5 per cent), intimidation (51.4 per cent) and family threatened (43.1 per cent). Eighty-nine (78.1 per cent) journalists had stopped working on a story because of intimidation. Arrest, torture, intimidation and family threatened were associated with more PTSD symptoms and assault and intimidation with more depressive symptoms. Almost a third used barbiturates, with use correlating with symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, arousal and depression. Conclusions: Iranian journalists confront an extraordinary degree of danger. Self-medication of emotional distress with barbiturates gives additional cause for concern." (Abstract) more

"Iran ranks 173 out of 180 countries on an index of press freedom. The purpose of the study was to assess the psychological wellbeing of Iranian journalists and document the stressors encountered in their work. Design: A secure website was established and participants were given their unique identif ... ying number and password to access the site. Setting: Newsrooms in Iran and the diaspora. Participants: Responses were received from 114 journalists (76%) of whom 65.8% were living in the diaspora. The mean age was 37.8 years (SD*=*7.30) and 57% male. Main outcomes measures: Type of stressor and behavioural data: Impact of Event Scale-revised for posttraumatic stress disorder, Beck Depression Inventory-II for depression. Results: Stressors include arrest (41.2%), torture (19.3%), assault (10.5%), intimidation (51.4%) and family threatened (43.1%). Eighty nine (78.1%) journalists had stopped working on a story because of intimidation. Arrest, torture, intimidation and family threatened were associated with more intrusive and arousal PTSD symptoms (p*<*.01 to .001) and assault and intimidation with more depressive symptoms (p*<*.05). Almost a third of Iranian journalists regularly used barbiturates, with use correlating with symptoms of intrusion (p*<*.0001), avoidance (p*<*.01), arousal (p*<*.0001) and depression (p*<*.0001). 46.5% of Iranian journalists were not receiving therapy for their distress. Conclusions: The findings, the first of their kind, provide data highlighting the extraordinary degree of danger confronted by Iranian journalists, their emotional distress in response to this and their proclivity to self-medicate with barbiturates." (Abstract) more