Journalists' Rights and Safety – the Role of International Organisations
- Rodney Pinder, director of the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI)
Journalism is in the firing line.
The statistics say it all:
- 45 journalists in 19 countries killed in pursuit of their work in 2003
- 35 journalists & critical support staff, such as drivers, translators and "fixers", killed in first four months 2004
- 40 journalists & support staff killed in Iraq War, worst in memory
- 70% of 1,300 journalists and support staff killed in past 10 years were local staff
- Most, if not all, of the local journalists killed had been "shining lights in dark corners" of their homelands
- In 95% of all cases, no person or group brought to justice and punished
Jordan's Prince Hassan highlighted the issue in opening remarks at the conference, saying journalists had a right of safety, "not just of work, but also of persons".
"To be a killer of a journalist is a relatively safe operation. This is completely unacceptable and reinforces the need for the media itself to confront these issues," said INSI director Rodney Pinder. "We (journalists) are quite often the only professionals on a battlefield without specialised protection training."
The need for training and equipment was backed by Akram Khouzam, Moscow bureau chief for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television, who said: "When covering Chechnya, I had no armoured vests when I was with the rebels. Each journalist should be able to avoid these difficulties and to get his or her own protection."
Major themes of the session were the need for available training expertise to be shared with local journalists and support workers - described as "the unsung heroes of war reporting" by two leading British journalists - the use of body armour and the issue of armed security guards for journalists in danger zones.
INSI, the first global umbrella of its kind, was set up by the news media in 2003 as a safety clearing house, information network and resource for safety training, advice and equipment. It arranged the first safety training for Iraqi journalists in Iraq and is seeking major funding for safety training for journalists around the world.
"It is an uphill struggle to engage news media companies. I was shocked in Malaysia to discover journalists had been assigned to Iraq with no training or safety equipment, not even respirators. One Japanese journalist in Iraq was unfamiliar with a flak jacket," Rodney Pinder said.
The theme of the need to give safety training and necessary equipment to local journalists and support staff was taken up by David Harrison, a senior correspondent for Britain's Sunday Telegraph. "It is important to stress the role of local workers. They are plugged into communities and the local terrain.
"We have flak jackets and sometimes the locals do not. The jackets may save you from a sniper's bullets," he said.
But the call for flak jackets for all was not universal at the session. A senior Russian journalist speaking from the floor said: "When you have such equipment it immediately attracts attention. We have to exert pressure on authorities to find a way to protect journalists in hot places."
Another journalist, from Kazakhstan, said there were other equally important issues to tackle - "Regretfully, in former countries of the Soviet Union, legislation puts journalists at risk rather than protecting them. We have certain articles on slander for which journalists can be thrown behind bars. The international community should act on this."
Asked if INSI had any advice on the use of armed guards for journalists or the carrying of personal weapons by journalists, Rodney Pinder said: "I am absolutely against journalists personally carrying arms. They (journalists) are dangerous enough, let alone with a gun! Having a gun sends a message that you regard one side or the other as an enemy."
"I realise many news organisations have armed protection, especially for work space protection. But you do not take armed protection into an interview. We try to make journalists aware of the downside of being armed. If you do it, do it with eyes wide open. Under the Geneva Conventions, journalists are regarded as non-combatants," he said.
Barry May, a former senior Reuters editor/correspondent and founder of the Media Safety Net hosted by British-based Centurion Risk Assessment Services, hailed local staff as the unsung heroes of war reporting.
He said there was a considerable amount of information on safety and security on sites such those run by Centurion, now also training US correspondents ahead of the Olympic Games in Athens.
Andrey Bakonin, president of the Russian-based Journalist Investigative Agency, said statistics on deaths of journalists were "tricky".
He mentioned the death in St Petersburg of a journalist after she was attacked in an apparent anti-mass media protest. "We checked. It turned out that she was attacked while she was going to a wedding party by drunkards wanting her money. Are there false statistics on attacks on the mass media?"
Rodney Pinder replied: "I am dismayed we are being targeted on statistics. This is outrageous…. We are not making this up. It is a serious problem and getting worse."
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