Regional Project News

Media crisis management in times of disaster: PPRD workshop in Amman

How to deal with the media during emergencies and alerting the population on hazards and risk reduction measures is the focus of a meeting in Amman gathering around 60 experts in information and communications working in the Civil Protection Authorities of the Mediterranean and Balkan countries, together with representatives of other organisations and ministries.

 

A press release said the workshop, organised by the EU-funded Programme on Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters (PPRD South), will take place under the theme “Information in Emergency and Awareness Raising” from 5 to 8 July 2010.

 

Jordanian Interior Minister Nayef Al Kadi, together with Patrick Renauld, Head of the EU Delegation to Jordan, and Francesco Fransoni, Italian Ambassador in Jordan will open the four-day workshop.

 

The first session of the workshop will focus on how to manage relations with the media during emergencies in order to avoid misinformation and reduce the impacts of disasters on the population. Participants will have the opportunity to learn how to plan and implement a successful communications and media strategy. They will be involved in hands-on group exercises on how to draft targeted statements for the media and deliver effective interviews. The growing importance of the internet, of its social networks and blogs in crisis communication will also be highlighted along with the rapid changes in the world of media during the last ten years.

 

The second session will address awareness raising. Case studies and good practices from the Euro-Mediterranean region will introduce participants to the most appropriate tools and methods to educate the population to disaster prevention and preparedness, from identification of the objectives to formulation of the messages.

 

At the end of the four-day workshop, the participants will have deepened their understanding of crisis communications and awareness raising. They will be able to identify priorities for action and select the key ingredients for successful communications and awareness raising strategies.

 

The €5 million PPRD South Programme – which runs for three years and is managed by a consortium led by the Italian Civil Protection Department together with the French, Algerian, Egyptian Civil Protection Authorities and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) – is also organising training workshops dealing with risks in the region such as wild fires, technological disasters, floods, earthquakes, epidemics and drought, among others.  (ENPI Info Centre)

 

Press release

 

PPRD South – fiche and news  

 

PPRD South – website