By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan which led to the Fukushima nuclear power station meltdown editors and journalists of the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun paper kept the spirit of journalism alive by publishing with pen and poster paper.
Not being able to run the presses and all the paraphernalia needed for publishing the news today and delivering it to the masses the publishers and editors of the paper reverted back to the old method of the wall newspaper.
Instead of publishing a printed paper they wrote it on poster paper in ink and then posted those pages on to the walls of the evacuation centers.
This is also not the first incident of Japanese papers – in the face of disaster – reverting back to the tried and tested methods of old when the modern methods of printing and distribution do not function.
Actions such as these epitomize, in my view, the inexhaustible spirit of the journalist and of journalism.
It might be even a good exercise for many journalists and publishers to, every so often, to work on emergency contingencies for just such events and to have ready some old, tried and tested methods and means of producing a paper.
© 2011
