Analysis: "Safety industry" grows as more journalists die
Source : BBC Monitoring 23.11.2004
Text of editorial analysis by Peter Feuilherade of BBC Monitoring Media Services at the News Xchange 2004 conference in Portugal on 19 November
In war zones and conflict areas in four continents, the death toll of journalists and media assistants has shot up in recent years.
The International Federation of Journalists fears that 2004 may turn out to be the worst year on record.
In response, a "safety industry" has developed, with global news gatherers and specialist training and counselling services all working together more systematically.
At the recent News Xchange broadcasting conference in Portugal, several sessions focused on the latest initiatives to protect staff and freelance journalists, in the field and back at base.
Another "terrible year"
More than 100 journalists and support staff have died around the world this year, almost 20 more than in 2003. The conflict in Iraq alone has claimed some 60 lives since March 2003.
Chris Cramer of the US network CNN is honorary president of the International News Safety Institute (INSI). He told hundreds of TV executives and journalists at News Xchange: "The death toll is three times higher than that of international humanitarian workers... This has been arguably the most terrible year for our profession - after I sat here and told you last year it had been the most terrible year."
By some counts, more than 1,200 journalists and media workers have been killed in the past 10 years, more than two thirds dying in their own countries.
"Most were deliberately targeted for seeking out the truth. And in more than 94 per cent of those cases, no one has been brought to trial," Cramer recalled.
He urged the media industry to boost funding to allow journalists to gather news "as safely as is possible in an increasingly dangerous environment - and without fear or favour".
Media vs military
INSI, based in Brussels and founded just a year ago, is a non-governmental organization that brings together news providers, journalist support groups and humanitarian bodies with the common goal of promoting the safety of media around the world.
INSI is involved in talks on journalist safety with the British Ministry of Defence, NATO and the Israeli army, as well as Reuters-sponsored talks with the Pentagon.
The media and the military "are separated by a large and at times fatal gulf of mutual misunderstanding", said INSI Director Rodney Pinder.
Another speaker at News Xchange, Reuters global managing editor David Schlesinger, blamed the US military for the deaths of three of its employees who had been killed in Iraq since the start of the war.
He accused the US military of having no understanding of how journalism was practised. "We can't run the risk that journalists will become targets. We must learn the lesson from these tragic cases," Schlesinger added.
But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told the conference via satellite from Washington that in a war such incidents were inevitable.
Insurgent threat
Other speakers at News Xchange noted that journalists and their assistants were equally under threat from armed groups and criminals.
In Iraq, one group had posted this threat on the internet against media they regarded as not being neutral enough: "We swear to God that we will hunt all the workers in these news agencies and slaughter them like sheep if they stand beside the Americans and do not broadcast the truth about the number of soldiers killed in Iraq."
The safety industry
A number of specialist companies operate hazardous environment courses for media working in conflict areas. Typically, these cost over 2,000 pounds for a week-long course, putting them beyond the budget of freelances unless they can raise funding.
Vaughan Smith, who set up the independent freelance TV news agency Frontline Television News in London in 1989, believes hostile environment training is more essential than ever, and safety policy needs to be better implemented.
"According to the best available statistics, it has been more dangerous since 9/11 to be a journalist than to be a soldier or civilian in conflict. Newsgathering is unaccustomed to this level of risk and is not properly organized to manage it," Smith wrote in a November 2004 discussion paper.
Meanwhile, newsroom-based staff are being exposed to a mounting flood of graphic images of violence.
The BBC is among broadcasters who are moving fast to put in place support systems for cases where events and images cause their staff stress and trauma.
Ensuring the safety of frontline journalists and managing the trauma of newsroom colleagues obliged to view explicit footage of killings and torture are making ever greater demands on the time and resources of media executives.
And freelances now find themselves more in demand, but also face greater risks, as more news media find it increasingly difficult to persuade their staff to report from war zones and dangerous areas.
Source: BBC Monitoring research 23 Nov 04
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