JAKARTA - The sad coverage by a television station reporter about the disaster in Sumatra has caught the attention of the public. The reporter seemed to cry when reporting the actual condition in the disaster area.
The atmosphere of the live television broadcast from Aceh Tamiang suddenly changed, when a reporter could not hold back his emotions while reporting the latest conditions of the flash flood and landslide disasters.
In the video that went viral, the reporter, who is known as Irine Wardhanie, said that after more than a week of carrying out his duties in the disaster area, no significant changes were felt by the affected community.
He also highlighted the difficulty of residents in obtaining basic needs, especially for children who were directly affected by the disaster. His tears broke out in the middle of the coverage, and netizens also felt deep sadness.
Clinical psychologist Reza Indragiri Amriel empathized with the reporter. Seeing the viral video, Reza said Irine experienced compassion fatigue.
"The extreme fatigue that actually arises from the great concern he gives to the people of Aceh," said Reza to VOI.
Government Claimed to Cover InformationThe ecological disaster in Aceh, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra has been going on for almost three weeks. Thousands of victims have died, according to the National Disaster Management Agency (BPNP), hundreds of others are missing, and hundreds of thousands more have been forced to flee.
However, the government's attitude in dealing with this ecological disaster has sparked criticism from the public.
The head of BNPB, Lieutenant General Suharyanto, was considered to underestimate the scale of the disaster. He said that the disaster in the three regions seemed to be gripping when information was spread on social media.
Not to mention the issue of member of the DPR Commission I Endipat Wijaya who questioned the public donation coordinated by content creator Ferry Irwandi. Endipat even compared the government's assistance, which is claimed to have reached trillions of rupiah, with the donation of Rp10 billion for disaster victims.
Meanwhile, President Prabowo Subianto believes that foreign assistance is not needed to handle disasters in Sumatra. According to him, with only three of the 38 provinces affected by disasters, the government does not need to declare a national disaster status.
While the government seems indifferent to disaster victims, the community is the opposite. Support continues to flow for affected residents, both directly and indirectly.
On December 4, the Kitabisa platform announced that it had successfully raised donations of up to Rp31 billion from a total of 371,000 donors for the Sumatra disaster. Not only that, the upload of netizens on various social media platforms was also dominated by anger towards the government for being less agile in dealing with disasters.
Reza Indragiri Amriel criticized Prabowo who seemed to cover up the actual information and conditions in Aceh, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra. In the midst of disasters, it is often flooded by hoaxes and various other misinformation. That is what President Prabowo tried to refute when he said that there were external parties who spread lies about the Sumatra disaster.
But after watching the sad coverage by the reporter, Reza suspected that the president himself was the party who actually produced the lie.
"Denying, hoarding negative news, and exaggerating the efforts that have been made. Is that what the government is doing?" said Reza.
Secondary TraumaWhat the President and his entourage said was the opposite of the actual condition revealed by a number of social media accounts. Most recently, a national private television journalist who clearly gave an overview of the post-disaster conditions in Sumatra, especially Aceh.
Apart from the government's attitude, Reza emphasized that he did not want to complain about the leadership of the president who seemed not to be very effective in dealing with ecological disasters. He instead empathized with the TV reporter.
The reporter even cried when giving the conditions in Aceh. Seeing this, Reza assessed that Irine experienced compassion fatigue, namely extreme fatigue, which actually came from the great concern he gave to the people of Aceh. This is different from burn out which is merely fatigue due to exhaustion.
"Compassion fatigue shows that victims are not just those who are directly affected by floods. Seeing the uncertain situation every day, listening to the sad stories of the victims, coupled with hearing lies after lies from the elite, in turn make the journalist fall into trauma. Secondary trauma, to be precise," he explained.
Besides journalists, according to Reza, there are other victims who also suffer from compassion fatigue. Humanitarian workers, soldiers, and police who are struggling in the field are also at risk of experiencing fatigue in a similar way.
"True, it is a responsibility and a professional risk that must be borne by the journalist. But he must be helped, and it is not impossible that help for him needs to involve professionals. Journalists need to be aware of the possibility of experiencing compassion fatigue. This mental pressure is different from intimidation or bribery," he said again.
However, Reza said, the journalist had uncovered the truth. The truth that the press is also human who can be mentally injured. The truth that the people of Aceh are suffering from ecological disasters.
"And the truth that all the government's words about what they have done will be meaningless compared to the white flag that the people of Aceh raised," he concluded.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
