WHAT ARE THE IMMEDIATE ISSUES?
Where to house the journalists
– A main briefing room for journalists (to host live media conferences) will need to be arranged as well as rooms for plans, technical back-up, maps, and a communications infrastructure and someone to run, support and maintain it (ie arrange WiFi, routers, power, links, a car park for satellite trucks, etc). In 2007, whilst working for the MCA and responding to the MSC Napoli casualty, I ‘took over’ a local hotel and booked out its main function room for a couple of weeks, providing journalists with immediate access to food and drink, toilets and so on.
– Expect journalists and news crews to come from all over the world if the casualty has a televisual impact. In the case of the MSC Napoli, automotive plants began to run out of car parts in South Africa and some workers were put on ‘short time’. This was enough for yet another TV crew to fly over from the region, especially to follow a story where jobs and livelihoods were being affected.
• It is important to actively coordinate the shipowner’s response to the casualty via the media and ensure that the messages are accurate and verified, as well as manage the media on which they are carried, whether social or mainstream.
• Social and mainstream medias need to be monitored 24/7 to provide prompt rebuttal if the
stories grow even more outlandish as journalists and other individuals, who by and large won’t know much about shipping, seek new angles and stories.
• Ensure that the key personnel from the various agencies and authorities have the opportunity to discuss options and issues. If one agency fails spectacularly, then the blame is shared equally, with adverse reputational risks for every player regardless of their efforts.
• Significant administrative back-up is also required for any large casualty.
MAINTAINING SECURITY
In the case of the MSC Napoli, the containers that washed ashore became a magnet for public and media interest, initially for the curious, then the opportunistic local pilferer. When newspapers printed maps of the location, it helped gangs carry off huge quantities of the beached cargo, which included automotive parts and wine barrels. This was aided and abetted by the lack of knowledge of UK law by both the public and media in such situations. ‘Finders keepers’ became the norm, rather than considering it as blatant theft from the beach.
Immediate security of the affected area would also need to be uppermost in any early decision-making.
CARGO OPERATIONS
There were two major difficulties that we didn’t share with the media at the time of the MSC Napoli casualty: one was the immediacy of sourcing suitable equipment for the emergency discharge of over 3,600 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. Another major problem was to find space to land the containers for ‘triage’. The
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