Adisu Abba wata mata ce mai shekaru 45 kuma uwa ga ‘ya’ya biyar. Ta fito daga Dikwa, Jihar Borno, a arewa maso gabashin Najeriya. Tun kafin rikici ya tarwatsa rayuwarta, ta riga ta fara koyon aikin da zai zama ginshiƙin rawarta a cikin al’ummarta—ta koyi yadda ake taimaka wa mata wajen haihuwa.
An yi garkuwa da Adisu a hannun ‘yan ta’adda na tsawon shekaru uku,a wannan lokacin, ta taimaka wajen haihuwar jarirai biyar. A wannan shirin na #BIRBISHINRIKICI, mun bada labarinta da kuma abin da yake nufi yin aikin ungozoma yayin da take tsare a hannun ƙungiyar ta’addanci ta Boko Haram.
HumAngle Media, a Pan-African publication covering conflict, humanitarian, and development issues, held an X Spaces on Saturday, May 9, to discuss ethical dilemmas surrounding financial assistance to vulnerable sources, especially for journalists reporting from conflict zones and areas affected by humanitarian crises.
The conversation was inspired by a recent HumAngle analysis examining the issue. Ahmad Salkida, HumAngle’s Editor-in-Chief and a veteran journalist who authored the article, argued that “in theory, [journalism] is expected to observe some emotional distance from its sources and the stories they tell. However, that model is inoperable in conflict-affected regions of northern Nigeria and the Sahel.”
The article sparked widespread debate, particularly among journalists and media educators. While some argued that reporters should remain strictly bound by professional ethics, others contended that it is difficult not to extend a helping hand, especially when the source is struggling with basic needs like food and water.
Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu, HumAngle’s Managing Editor, who moderated the X Spaces, opened the conversation with the story of Kevin Carter, a South African journalist who died by suicide three and a half months after being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. The award-winning image showed a visibly malnourished child in Sudan who collapsed to the ground while a vulture lurked in the background.
In his suicide note, Kevin said, “I am haunted by the vivid memories … of starving or wounded children”. Hauwa noted that Kevin’s experience shows that the conversation about offering support to vulnerable sources in conflict-affected or humanitarian crisis-hit regions has serious emotional and ethical real-world consequences.
The conversation was enriched with insights from other speakers, including Lami Sadiq, a data and investigative journalist; Daniel Ojukwu, an investigative journalist with Foundation for Investigative Journalism; and Ibrahim Adeyemi, HumAngle’s Investigations Editor.
The speakers shared instances in which they felt compelled to offer bags of water, food, and sometimes money to people who were evidently struggling. They agreed that being a journalist does not excuse one from basic human decency and empathy.
Design by Akila Jibrin/HumAngle.
Lami stressed that it is important to distinguish between support offered out of humanity and responsibilities carried out in a professional journalistic capacity. She emphasised that when the source outrightly demands payment at the start of an interview, journalists should not only not pay the source but also seek other sources to replace them, to maintain credibility.
“It makes everything transactional, and that affects the credibility of the journalists and the report in question,” she said.
While it is sometimes difficult to deal with sources who are used to getting humanitarian aid in exchange for information, Lami said journalists must stand their ground and use other sources, especially if the issues to be reported are not exclusive.
Hauwa emphasised that helping vulnerable sources to understand that telling their story is in their best interest will help address issues such as financial compensation, especially when dealing with sources who can be very demanding.
While speaking on the risks of financially supporting sources, Daniel urged journalists to be mindful of directly supporting sources, as doing so might incriminate them if the sources are later engaged or are linked to criminal networks.
“If a source you once offered money to is later linked with criminal activity, it could look really bad on you. In Nigeria, you might even be dubbed a terrorist financier when all you are doing is your job as a journalist. We have seen this happen many times in Nigeria,” he said.
Daniel added, “When I interact with sources or with fixers, I have to profile everyone I’m interacting with. Sometimes, I have to withdraw from sources or fixers because of the manner in which they approach matters.”
While paying for information remains unethical in principle, there are distinct instances in which journalists say they must step in to provide financial aid.
Drawing on his field experience, Ibrahim recounted a time when he had to assist a source in taking her child to the hospital due to a medical emergency. He paid for the medical bills, and when the doctor said the child might have died if they had shown up an hour later, Ibrahim said he was glad he had helped.
“Acting first as a human is at the core of humanitarian journalism,” Ibrahim stated.
However, he stressed that moments requiring urgent humanitarian intervention should not blur ethical boundaries in reporting. Ibrahim further called on editors to educate reporters on the challenges they might face when dealing with sources who require monetary compensation for information.
“They [reporters] should always look for ethical alternatives rather than compromising their standards just to get the stories,” he said.
The speakers also urged journalists to be mindful when dealing with displaced persons or vulnerable communities, as they may exaggerate their situation to generate sympathy, believing it might lead to aid. For journalists, this makes verification especially important, even in highly emotional reporting environments.
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That same need to maintain professional boundaries also came up in discussions about interviewing experts. Daniel, when asked whether experts should be paid for granting interviews, stated: “Never do so.” Instead, he stressed that building rapport with experts before they are needed helps address such issues.
Christie Garba mace ce mai shekaru 38, uwa ga yara bakwai, wadda ke zaune a Billiri, Jihar Gombe, a yankin Arewa maso Gabashin Najeriya. Ta kasance tana zaune a Jihar Yobe tare da iyalinta kafin rikicin Boko Haram ya addabi yankin. A wancan lokacin, hare-hare sun riga sun faru a wasu wurare kusa da su, amma ba su kai ga al’ummarsu kai tsaye ba.
Christie da iyalinta sun zauna kimanin watanni huɗu bayan hare-haren sun fara, amma yayin da rikicin ya ƙaru, sojoji suka gargadi mazauna yankin cewa lamarin ya yi tsanani sosai, ba zai yiwu su ci gaba da zama ba. Dokokin hana fita (curfew) da suka biyo baya sun sa rayuwar yau da kullum ta zama mai matuƙar wahala.
A wannan shirin na #BirbishinRikici mun ba da labarin yadda Christie da iyalinta suka koma Jihar Gombe da kuma yadda ta yi rayuwa ta hanyar fara sabon kasuwanci.
We should start by clarifying that it wasn’t entirely a shutdown. Reports still appeared on the website and on our social media pages regularly in April, but we were not working. They were produced in March and scheduled for April.
In December last year, HumAngle announced an anti-burnout policy that allows the newsroom to go on a total break in April, August, and December. While journalists would still receive their complete pay, they would not be working during those months. It was an unprecedented and radical move that we felt was necessary to preserve the mental and physical health of the journalists who work unimaginably hard every day to bring hard truths about conflict to the fore.
The truth is that the work we do as journalists is life-saving. Information must go out. People must know what is happening around them if they are to live safely and make informed decisions about their lives and futures. Information can quite literally be the distance between life and death, especially in an increasingly violent country. The news cycle does not stop because the human experience is a continuum. It can’t be boxed into Monday to Friday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Things just… happen. And this is where the complication lies.
Living like that has such a searing mental health toll, and because it is not physical, it often goes unnoticed and therefore untreated. Stressors are seen as ‘just part of the job’. The chaos is necessary to sustain the profession.
We realised that flipping that script on its head would make all the difference. Well-being is necessary to sustain the profession. It is necessary not just for the people who do the work, but even for the work itself. This idea is based on the simple assumption that humans are more likely to perform at their best when they feel their best. And yet, the news cycle demands that you keep working, even when deep down you know you have very little left to give.
And so one of the questions we needed to ask ourselves as the policy came together was this: What would we do if a major conflict news demanded coverage during one of these rest months? The answer that we arrived at was simple yet profound: Nothing. The first lesson we learned this April, as we tried to put that answer into practice for the first time since the policy was announced, was that ‘nothing’ can sometimes be a very difficult thing to do.
Reader, all hell seemed to break loose in April. Nearly all, if not all, states in Nigeria experienced some form of major insecurity event. Multiple airstrikes killed hundreds of people in Borno and Yobe. There were violent attacks in places like Erena in Niger State, as well as many abductions in Sokoto, Plateau, Cross River, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, and Benue.
At some point, inaction began to feel more difficult than the action we were trying to take a break from.
What did reporters spend their rest month doing?
Two journalists said one of their best accomplishments was reading more. One said they read three books to completion and were on their fourth. The other said they read seven poetry books, three novels, and one non-fiction book.
Someone else took a culinary class and learned to make new cuisines. They also went clubbing for the first time.
Another said they went off the grid for a whole week and did not have to worry about missing any major news. Others travelled, explored their interests and passions, and engaged in other money-making activities. One person shared that they spent an entire night helping an older woman in their neighbourhood to smoke and fry some fish for sale. They worked from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. With the following morning being a Monday, they would not have done so if not for the break. The experience made them realise that the smoked fish business was exhausting. “I no go dey price fish anyhow again,” they joked.
Another person said they enjoyed stepping out of their home to the salon or gym without worrying about taking their laptop in case a work thing came up.
Someone else said they authored two articles for a peer-reviewed journal, to which another person responded: “You are too serious about life.”
Someone else said they spent days indoors just watching movies, only taking breaks to eat. Another person tried to enter the real estate market and was swindled for their efforts (but not before successfully selling a plot of land).
Someone else went into a goat-rearing and selling business. “Imagine on a Monday morning, when you’re supposed to be having an editorial meeting (where the managing editor is saying, “can you please use the pitching template I sent in the group?”) but you’re cruising from one remote village in Gwagwalada, buying goats to resell them for some pennies. If not for [the] anti-burnout policy, I no fit try am,” they joked.
The larger picture
Studies have shown that journalism is one of the professions characterised by poor work-life balance, and these responses from our journalists have driven that point home more than anything else. Many of the things they spent time doing are ordinary daily activities that make life worth living, or sometimes even enjoyable. Yet, they were not entirely possible during the work season. It puts things in perspective. Burnout exists among journalists because there is no clear start and stop point in the profession, which can make personal and enjoyable activities difficult to accomplish.
As the newsroom fully resumes next week, we will continue to do what we do best: tell important stories while still prioritising our wellbeing. In the next few weeks, you can expect to read deep dives about the conflicts that happened last month. We might be late to the gathering, but it was for a good reason.
