It is not a given that the media spokesperson consistently observes the following important basic rules of crisis communication in such a difficult situation:
- It describes only the facts of the current state of knowledge.
- She never engages in hypotheses and assumptions.
- The answers are exemplary short. She lacks the stilted formulations that are typical of civil servants.
- Leading questions from pushy journalists have no success with her.
I assume that the press spokesperson belarus rcs data had been trained in a process-oriented manner. In my experience, hardly anyone can handle a media marathon of this kind so well if they have only learned it theoretically.
In all the performances that I observed and also in the interviews on the second day, Cindy Beer seemed very focused, credible, although a little tense (but this corresponds to the given situation).
Someone complained that the press spokesperson was not relaxed enough in her appearances. I pointed out to the critic that anyone who chatted casually about serious issues in such a situation - as if they were just having small talk - would not be credible.
Something else struck me: At the beginning, the police operations were described as somewhat chaotic. I quote a woman who was interviewed on site:
"First a police officer shouted for everyone to get out onto the street. A little later everyone was told to go back into the buildings."
In retrospect, however, this "chaos" is understandable: the police first had to get an overview and assess the situation. People in neighboring properties had to be instructed to leave the building under police protection. In a later phase, people were then asked to stay in the building for their safety.