Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Marilyn Clark and I am an academic at the University of Malta in the Department of Psychology. I am presently a key researcher on a Council of Europe study on journalists in exile. This letter is an invitation to participate in this study. Below you will find information about the study and about what your involvement would entail, should you decide to take part.
The aim of the study is to:
- To comprehend the reasons why journalists seek exile as well as the situations that surround their departure.
- To understand how they navigate the process of leaving their home country and settling in the host country.
- To investigate the emotional and psychological difficulties that journalists in exile experience.
- To investigate the legal and professional difficulties that journalists in exile experience.
- To uncover the coping processes and strategies that journalists working in exile use to get by in their new environments, carry on with their reporting, and develop resilience.
- To shed light on the role of international organizations, host countries, and the broader media landscape in supporting journalists in exile.
- To examine the role and effectiveness of legal frameworks, support systems, and institutions within Council of Europe member states in ensuring the safety and well-being of exiled journalists.
- To identify best practices and potential areas for improvement in the treatment of journalists in exile and to provide insights for policy development.
Your participation in this study would help contribute to a better understanding of the transitions of journalists in exile and an understanding of their needs and possible responses. Any data collected from this research will be used solely for purposes of this study.
Should you choose to participate, you will be asked to attend an interview that will last for circa 1 and a half hours. If interviews are held online, I will activate the required encryption for 3rd party endpoints sip/h-323 function and only audio-record the session. Data collected will be stored in password protected files on the researcher’s laptop and may be accessible to the research team.
Participation in this study is entirely voluntary; in other words, you are free to accept or refuse to participate, without needing to give a reason. You are also free to withdraw from the study at any time, without needing to provide any explanation and without any negative repercussions for you. Should you choose to withdraw, any data collected from your interview will be erased as long as this is technically possible.
If you choose to participate, please note that you will have the opportunity to discuss your situation in exile. Your participation does not entail any anticipated risks except perhaps that it may elicit some sensitive emotions in yourself.
Your name will not appear anywhere in the final text and all data pertaining to you will be pseudoanonymised. A code linking the data to you will be retained by the research team and will be securely stored. Every effort will be made to protect your identity. The lead researcher will assign a fictional name to the participant. She will retain the identifying information in order to be able to provide you with a copy of the transcript for review after the interview has been transcribed. To mitigate potential harm, sensitive and identifying information will be handled with utmost care, including resorting to fiction-non fiction. You will be given the transcript of their interview to review and return within a period of three weeks. You will also be able to see the excerpts of your interview as they appear in the final text.
Please note also that, as a participant, you have the right under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation to access, rectify and where applicable ask for the data concerning you to be erased. All data collected will be stored in an anonymised form on completion of the study.
A copy of this information sheet is being provided for you to keep and for future reference.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail [marilyn.clark@um.edu.mt] or on mobile number 0035679824704 or land line 0035623402741
Sincerely,
Prof Marilyn Clark
Department of Psychology
University of Malta