You might have missed the earthquake in Canary Wharf earlier this year. It didn't make the news headlines, because this was an earthquake staged by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as part of tests for its Emergency Information Service (EIS), launched this week.

The foundation carried out two trial runs, the one in London and one in Indonesia, to help develop the service, which will send out units of Reuters journalists to disaster zones with the aim of disseminating life-saving information to those affected.

Indonesia, a country regularly hit by large-scale natural disasters, was a revealing test site, Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, tells Journalism.co.uk.

"We did a big survey there and there was absolutely a common view of everybody that what they really missed there was greater communication with the population affected. It made me think that we can make a small difference, but it's a difference worth trying to make," she says.

As a result of the Indonesia trial of EIS, the foundation built better technology for sending alerts and information to locals and aid agencies and also learned more about the differences between being a news reporter and an information provider.

"You can't report and add to the panic. You are giving this information just once, you have to have checked with the government and agencies to give the local population actionable information," says Villa.

The journalists working for the foundation and for the EIS are extremely well trained and have already worked for long stints in regions regularly affected by natural disasters. Many have worked for AlertNet, the foundation's humanitarian news network of 400 contributing humanitarian organisations, and for its weekly email digest received by more than 26,000 readers.

"They cover humanitarian issues already and have developed a network for when we have to deploy an EIS. They know how to very quickly find an interpreter or a translator, for example, and you need extremely good translators that are very accurate," she says.

The units of journalists sent out when EIS is deployed will provide basic, but vital information such as how to trace lost relatives and where to find uncontaminated water supplies.

"It's information you can immediately act on and empower yourself to save yourself," says Villa.

The capacity to check information and provide clarity are characteristic skills of Reuters' journalists, she adds. But these need to exist along with a particular mindset for disaster situations: "You are in front of people who have been confronted with complete drama, but they are not victims. You have to know that whatever information you can give them you will help them deal with themselves and deal with their lives."

The EIS will not try to replace the work of Reuters journalists covering the story for the news wires, but will try to provide the news and information needed by the local people in the affected area, she adds.

Working with local and international media partners will be important in making the EIS a success. Villa acknowledges that the foundation can't supply everything and as such has been in discussions with the BBC and Internews. Using local media outlets must also be assessed: "The local media is who the local population trusts. If the radio still works it's a great way to reach people."

Partnerships are important to fill in the missing links in the information chain, says Villa, and the EIS will also help train humanitarian agencies, governments and local media in communications and disaster response to help them better meet the information needs of their populations in the aftermath of a disaster.

"Information in itself is a form of aid as important and crucial as food or shelter," says Villa. "The right information at the right time is very valuable."