Safety Travel Testimonials

As well as through webinars and online training to our 40+ offices in 25 countries. We very much look forward to further developing our training programme with Charlie and his team this year.

Toby Smith, February 2018

Working with journalists is not easy. Eurovision Academy wanted to develop a new concept of a Safety course that would match a journalist’s real life and work. We wanted to help reporters to pursue proper journalism without being killed or injured, without being broken or destroyed by the horror they can face, while coping with stress and keeping their minds sound and calm.

The course was developed around reporters‘ personal workflow: assignment to a trip, preparation, arrival on location, work and coverage of the story. The development of this new course required a lot of work and dedication, which they did with an immense enthusiasm and commitment. Objective identified the key areas for learning, created real scenarios so that the learning would definitely be fused with the own personality of the reporter.

This is how we created HEST, our flagship Safety and Security programme. Since 2004, Objective has been developing and delivering 58 courses for 671 reporters and journalists from 40 countries.

In an increasingly dangerous environment, 671 reporters managed to keep safe while making their stories in risky and hazardous areas all over the world. This is a record which I am particularly proud of.

Reporters are transformed after the course, they better know who they are, they are equipped with a solid toolbox, they know how and what to improve on their behaviour. All 671 reporters, from the young inexperienced ones to the more senior field reporters, praised the course and Objective for what they learnt.

Read this quote in particular:

February 2011- Petr Svidenský, Czech television

Hi Charlie, Hope you're well. I wrote you, because I wanna to THANK YOU for everything you learnt me and of course yours colleagues also. I was filming in Cairo from 28 of january to 4 of february and Im still alive because i follow almost everything I learnt in HEST. It was maybe the most heaviest filming that I came thru, we were in the middle of shooting, we were kidnapped, detained and many other "happy" things. THANK YOU Charlie for your training.

Thank you Objective!

Secondly, a perfect communication pattern and framework has been established between Eurovision Academy and Objective Travel Safety, from the administration, to logistics, marketing and content side. The code of conduct for our common dialogue is solid, informal and direct.

When we discuss a topic we always come up with a mutually satisfactory answer. As a commissioner of the courses, I can always tell them how I feel and provide them with an honest feedback. We have a quality monitoring system. We continuously improve the course through participant’s feedback, commissioner’s debrief and also audit from external experts.

On a business perspective, since 12 years, Objective Travel has been bringing to the table their unique experience and energy that expand and enhance our training services to our clients. Thanks to them, HEST has become the reference course on Safety and Security in Europe and beyond. They prove to be flexible, agile to answer in the best way the requests from our stations.

For Eurovision Academy, it was crucial to make it a success. Academy is the EBU’s corporate training centre. It fully supports the EBU’s strategy by delivering the most relevant courses for Members’ professionals from 73 Television and Radio broadcasters from 56 countries. Providing Public Service media’s professionals with the best course on safety and security was a must.

Thank you Objective!

Thirdly, the skills they bring are unique, varied, always adapted to new situations.  Days are now full of bad and harsh news about security that create anxiety and nervousness among the staff. Objective provides us with the right answers: concrete, balanced, serious and calm.

This is a great team of former senior officers, trainers and operators from the British Special Forces, front-line media professionals, specialists in technical and IT security, medical experts.

A fantastic team obsessed with the quality of the course and its relentlessly open improvement.

They bring expertise into the following areas:

•        Pre deployment : Destination Research,  Documentation, Travel Equipment, Communication
•        Getting started tips/ first in,
•        Personal Safety,
•        Situation awareness, Crime avoidance, Dealing with aggression,
•        Tips for Females journalists
•        Kidnap and Ransom
•        Local Travel
•        Travel & environment Health
•        Emergency First Aid
•        Field Safety

Thank you Objective!

Finally, it is my privilege to make special note of the accomplishments of Objective Travel, Eurovision Academy provider for Safety and Security courses, and I would like to highly recommend them and praise them for their work

Nathalie Labourdette

Head Eurovision Academy

labourdette@ebu.ch