1. Drone Journalism in
Crisis Reporting: New
Opportunities and Limits
JRE/UNESCO Special Session on Safety of Journalists
IAMCR Montreal
12.7.2015
Turo Uskali & Epp Lauk & Heikki Kuutti

2. Traditional crisis reporting
Covering crisis presents some of the biggest
challenges in the news reporting. Taking good
images or videos during wars is especially
hazardous business.
2

3. Traditional crisis reporting

4. Traditional crisis reporting
According to Committee to Protect Journalists
(2015) in 2012–2014 altogether over 70
journalists and photographers were killed in
crossfire or combat.
1121 Journalists Killed since 1992

5. Enter remotely controlled camera
copters - drones

6. Towards Drone Journalism
As Goldberg et al. (2012, 28) write: “Remotely
piloted aircraft will be common in the skies of
many nations in the near future because they
offer distinct opportunities and advantages to
journalism.”
Also Gynnild (2014) has argued for more
research on the use of camera drones. She
has proposed new terms like “robot eye
witness” and “robot eyewitnessing”.
6

7. Towards Drone Journalism
Already in 2011 the first international
organization dedicated to drone journalism
was created: the Professional Society of
Drone Journalists (PSDJ).
It was established for discussing the ethical,
educational and technological framework of
drone journalism.

8. Towards Drone Journalism
Since then drones have been used especially
in investigative, disaster, weather, sports and
environmental journalism.
Drone journalism basically faces the same
issues as capturing still or video images from
the ground. But there are additional ethical
issues involved.

9. Ethical Guidelines
Professional Society of Drone Journalists has
laid down four basic ethical principles for
drone journalists:
1) newsworthiness,
2) safety,
3) protection of privacy and
4) sanctity of law and public spaces.

10. Ethical Guidelines
Katherine Culver (2012; 2014)
1) safety
2) accuracy and context
3) privacy
4) conflict of Interest

11. Drone journalism in recent crises
The earthquake in Nepal in April 2015
A drone video by local drone operator showing
the destructions of old buildings in the capital
Kathmandu and elsewhere went viral.
Many international news organisations tried to
use the drones, but within a week, the
government of Nepal banned drones.

12. Drone journalism in recent crises
The War in Eastern Ukraine 2015
Almost all of drone videos are made by military on
both sides of the conflict, and therefore do not
represent actual drone journalism. A drone video
showing the destruction of Donetsk’s airport went viral
in January 2015
Graham W. Phillips, a British documentarist has his
own Youtube video news channel (Gwplondon 2015).
He has posted several video clips from Eastern
Ukraine. They are mixture of ground reporting and
drone videos.

13. Freedom of the Press issue: legal
or not
“Many countries are struggling to figure out
how to regulate these devices, and many see
journalists launching a flying camera as a
threat to the government.”(Drone journalism
professor Matt Waite)
In May 2014 more than a dozen US media
organizations challenged the government's
ban on the use of drones by journalists
arguing that the FAA violates First
Amendment protections for newsgathering.

14. The future of drone journalism
The Press
Freedom Index
by Reporters
Without Borders
(2015) can offer
a good hint for
the future of
drone journalism
in various
countries.
1 Finland 7,52
2 Norway 7,75
3 Denmark 8,24
4 Netherlands 9,22
5 Sweden 9,47
6 New Zealand 10,06
7 Austria 10,85
8 Canada 10,99
9 Jamaica 11,18
10 Estonia 11,19
11 Ireland 11,2
12 Germany 11,47
13
Czech
Republic 11,62
14 Slovakia 11,66
15 Belgium 11,98
16 Costa Rica 12,26
17 Namibia 12,5
18 Poland 12,71
19 Luxembourg 13,61
20 Switzerland 13,85

15. The Future of Drone Journalism
It is easy to see that these countries are not in
conflict zones, and therefore not the best
areas for testing the crisis reporting or war
reporting on drones.
However, many weather and climate related
topics like storms, floods, and drought could
be tested also in these countries.

16. Finnish case
The country, on top of the list, Finland, has a
few news organizations (YLE, MTV3, STT,
Helsingin Sanomat) that already use drones,
but their potential is clearly recognized and a
remarkable increase is expected in near
future.
The Finnish Transport Safety Agency (Trafi)
set very few limitations to the use of camera
drones for journalistic purposes.

17. Finnish News Agency lost one its
drones recently

18. Drone journalism
education started
2014 in Jyvä skylä ,
the first in Nordic
countries.

19. Finally
The information we have gathered here is still
very much fragmented.
We suggest that more research, especially
comparative, on drone journalism should be
developed.
UNESCO could be one important initiator and
hub of international collaboration of drone
journalism research.

20. Thank you!
Turo.i.uskali@jyu.fi
@TuroUskali
Warsaw Nov. 12, 2011