Occupational safety for journalism and press

• Journalism & press

Where and when journalists work

In a newsroom, events decide when and where people work. Research and reporting often happen at short notice and alone, in places and at hours that a normal office set-up is not designed for.

For the risk assessment it pays to organise by activity rather than by room. A court reporter who spends her days in other people's buildings and a colleague on the news desk who sifts through footage from disaster zones may share the same open-plan floor. Their hazards have little in common. A separate section for each role is clearer than one long list for the whole newsroom, and easier to update when someone moves to another section.

Which accident insurance institution is responsible for a press company depends on the type of operation. The VBG's statutes name press and news agencies and journalists explicitly, and its hazard tariff also lists editorial offices. A newspaper's newsroom, by contrast, usually belongs to the publishing house and is insured with the publisher's institution: mostly the Berufsgenossenschaft Handel und Warenlogistik (BGHW) for publishers without their own printing plant, the BG ETEM for those with one. What counts is the membership notice.

Newsrooms and press offices: classification and thresholds

Employed editors and trainee journalists are included in the headcount. Part-time staff count proportionally towards the threshold of 20: up to 20 hours a week as 0.5, up to 30 hours as 0.75. Freelancers are left out as long as they work on their own account. Whether they do depends on how far they are integrated into the newsroom in practice, for instance through fixed shifts on the rota, and not on the label in the contract alone.

What a newsroom's risk assessment has to cover

• External assignments and lone working. Research on location, evening and weekend appointments, often unaccompanied. An arrangement is needed for who knows where someone is, and at what point a missing check-in is noticed.
• Hostility and threats. Attacks and threats against media workers are a real hazard and belong explicitly in the assessment of mental stress, together with reporting and aftercare routes.
• Distressing content. Working with violence, disaster and suffering is a mental stress within the meaning of section 5 paragraph 3 ArbSchG, even when it happens at a desk.
• Shift patterns and availability. Early, late and weekend shifts as well as on-call duty affect rest periods and have to be taken into account in the assessment.

For early and late shifts, the general rule is a rest period of eleven hours (section 5 ArbZG): if the late shift ends at 11 pm, the next shift can start at 10 am at the earliest. Mental stress in the risk assessment explains how threats and distressing content can be covered in the assessment.

Typical findings when a newsroom is inspected

In the newsroom itself the findings are open-plan acoustics, blocked traffic routes and equipment in tight spaces. The decisive part usually is not on paper at all: for external assignments there is often no assessment, no arrangement for lone working, and no documented route for reporting and following up a threat. That is exactly what gets asked about after an incident.

Safety training for the newsroom and reporters in the field

Two blocks are added to the usual office training. First, external assignments: signing out and checking back in, conduct in unclear situations, criteria for calling it off. Second, dealing with hostility: who to talk to, how an incident is reported, what aftercare exists. Both belong in the record, because after an incident the question is whether the business was prepared.

If someone is threatened or attacked on assignment, the incident should be recorded and reported to the accident insurance institution, even without physical injury and even if only psychological symptoms need treatment. How the accident report works and which deadlines apply is covered in Accidents at work in the office: reporting and deadlines.

Related

• External occupational safety specialist: What the specialist does for a newsroom and how the support hours are calculated.
• Occupational safety for publishing and media houses: When editorial, storage and dispatch share one building.
• Occupational safety for broadcasting, film and TV: For newsrooms with their own studio and location work.
• Risk assessment for remote work and telework: For research and writing at home or on the move.
• Training-interval calculator: When the next safety training for desk and field staff is due.
• Support-hours calculator: Basic support in group III from your headcount.

Legal basis

• DGUV Regulation 2 (occupational physicians and safety specialists)
• Occupational Safety Act (ASiG)
• Social Code Book VII (SGB VII), statutory accident insurance
• Occupational Health and Safety Act (ArbSchG)

Frequently asked questions