When tragedy strikes the competition starts

Pavlina survived alone in a DOC Hut on the Routeburn track for many weeks after the fall and death of her partner, Ondrej Petr.

The race for media to get to Pavlina appeared to be won by the Fairfax team of Blair Ensor, Rhys Chamberlain and Debbie Jamieson who published quotes from Pavlina early in the morning following her rescue the afternoon before.

While the Police Commander of the Operation made veiled references to unhelpful comments in circulation, his comments must have been more about social media than mainstream media because all the mainstream coverage I saw was sensitively handled. The story was so incredible that journalists and the public alike were right to be wary of its veracity ahead of verifiable facts.

Barely 24 hours after her rescue, Pavlina bravely faced a Police organised media conference to give her account of what happened. This was all the more remarkable given that English was her second language. She was ably supported by the Consul for the Czech Republic, Vladka Kennett who took questions from the journalists and help round out the picture of what had happened.

Long standing Police practice in these situations is to encourage victims to identify an individual who can be a spokesperson for them. Often this is a family member or close family friend. While nomination of such a person doesn’t entirely satiate the demands of the media to hear from the victim themselves it greatly assists in the myriad of follow-up interviews that inevitably follow.

In this case the demand for media interviews from northern hemisphere media outlets would probably have been particularly heavy and the peak load of such calls often comes late into the New Zealand night and early hours of the morning. Having a competent spokesperson is a godsend both to relieve exhaustion of both the physical and mental kind.

The rise of multi-platform media companies, use of simple videography and desire to get material to market in a jiffy has had an interesting by-product. It means that the viewing public more often than not gets to see unedited live-streaming rather than the most emotion filled “grab” that free-to-air crews used to live or die for.

While live streaming footage sometimes lacks the polish and visual beauty of footage taken by dedicated specialists it is totally authentic and gives a measure of control to the individual at the centre of it all. For that we can all be grateful.

A link to RNZ's coverage of the live streamed media conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXyUWV0dq7g