Here are two perspectives Deutsche Welle and Radio Netherlands.
A comment from the Financial Times newspaper of 9 January 2005 on coverage by Germanys international broadcaster Deutsche Welle:
Where other international channels tried to grapple with the delicate isue of giving an appropriate balance between covering local deaths and missing tourists, the Berlin-based network did the best job tackling this difficult balancing act. It delivered the facts about the destruction, to all nations hit by the catastrophe, made viewers aware of what was being done by the federal government and what Gerhad Schröder was up to throughout and made a point of delivering a message that the Luftwaffe had been deployed to bring aid in and take German nationals out.
A comment from Radio Netherlands:
“Here at Radio Netherlands, we are very much aware of the consequences of the tsunami. Our colleague Marijke van der Meer was holidaying in Sri Lanka, and found herself helping to care for the injured as well as sending reports to Radio Netherlands. Victor Goonetilleke has been busy in his role as president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka, helping to provide communications links. And our colleagues in the Indonesian department of Radio Netherlands are busy organising efforts to restore local broadcasting services in Aceh, which have been devastated. Radio Netherlands’ Hans-Jaap Melissen is also reporting from Aceh. His reports, and Marijke’s, are on our web site.”
“Here in Hilversum, commercial and public broadcasters work together providing fundraising programmes on radio and TV. Radio 555 is the first time in Dutch broadcasting history that so many broadcasters from stations that are normally rivals have come together as friends to raise money for a good cause, and this unprecedented initiaitive has caught the public’s imagination. Already more than 2.5 million euros have been pledged today as a direct result of the radio broadcasts, and the eventual total is expected to be much higher. It’s sad that it takes a tragedy to bring the broadcasters together, but at times like this they can do far more together than separately.
Four radio stations destroyed by the tsunami in Aceh – Muhammadiyah and Prima FM in Banda Aceh, Dalka Radio in Meulaboh and Megaphone in Sigli – will be rebuilt by the Indonesian news radio station 68H, and at least two of them will be back on the air by the end of this month. The cost, some 1.2 billion rupees, will be paid by the US-based Media Development Loan Fund. 15 technicians have already started their work in Banda Aceh. After the work is completed on these four radio stations, there is a plan to rebuild other damaged stations in Simelue, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh, with help from Radio Netherlands and Deutsche Welle.
Many staff of radio stations in Aceh, journalistic colleagues of the Radio Netherlands Indonesian department, people with whom Radio Netherlands had regular contact, are missing. Some stations in Aceh with which Radio Netherlands had worked for many years have been totally destroyed one of them is Radio Nikoya FM in Banda Aceh. Radio Netherlands is starting an action programme to set up a number of emergency radio stations, which will in due course be built up into permanent stations. The Head of the Indonesian department of Radio Netherlands, Indra Titus, said: “We want to help to get the radio stations back on the air, because radio is a very important means of communication in the stricken areas. As help is beginning to flow, communications must be restored to help the search for family members and make information accessible. Even under normal circumstances, radio in Indonesia is a vital means of communication that people cannot be without.” Radio Netherlands will also appeal to its 6000 partner stations around the world to collect money and equipment.