INSI REPORT ON JOURNALISTS DEATHS

The chairman of the inquiry, Richard Sambrook, BBC director of global news presented this investigation into the plight and lack of protection of many journalists and commended its recommendations to the UN, individual governments and international development institutions.

Based on evidence gathered worldwide, the report was produced by the Cardiff University (in particular dr. Kenneth Payne at Journalism Studies). It shows that over the last ten years a thousand journalists and support staff died when trying to report news around the world, often in armed conflict regions. Yet, the shocking evidence is that the great majority died in peacetime working in their own countries. At least 657 men and women were murdered, most of the time with impunity without proper investigation. As Rodney Pinder, director of INSI and CIoJ member pointed out, this fact, together with the lack of proper training and equipment of many journalists sent to war zones prompted INSI to investigate the conditions of objective reporting and freedom of speech.

The many testimonies in the report from journalists in non conflicting situations and media in war zones from 1996 onwards substantiate the definition of danger and the statistics of casualties. The report describes the media and western militaries at war, confirms the importance of independent reporting and discusses the advantages and drawbacks of an universally recognised press emblem. It considers that working in conflict areas should be voluntary with compulsory training and much better conditions of employment which should include safety. During the discussion it transpired that conditions for broadcasting journalists are gradually improving, while those for journalists working for the written press leave a lot to be desired. Weak legislation and lack of enforcement of the protections of the Geneva Conventions led INSI to lay down a series of conditions to protect wounded or detained journalists.

The key issues of ‘the deadly price of truth’ identified in the report which give rise to recommendations are neutrality, impunity, media and military, employers and standards. Journalists are no longer recognised as neutral observers and tend to be identified with their countries when covering international conflicts. The weakness or absence of investigations failing to bring murderers of journalists to justice have led to some culture of impunity which needs to be fought. The reports proposed an international code of practice to improve mutual understanding of the military and journalists covering conflicts. Although employers have a duty of care also of freelance journalists, they often send them out ill prepared, unaware of risks and without adequate equipment. INSI has worked on these aspects before, offering training, but a lot more remains to be done. Conversely, INSI considers that journalists have responsibility to themselves and their colleagues to work to the highest editorial and ethical standards to uphold credibility of freedom of speech.

The CIoJ is a strong supporter of INSI and was well represented at the press launch of this hard hitting report. Besides death and maiming, kidnapping was brought up as another step in the risk chain journalists in the field or in dissent have to face. It is important to implement the INSI recommendations and the CIoJ can make a contribution, in particular to the benefit of CIoJ’s large number of freelance and broadcasting members. The memorial for journalists killed in both war and non conflict situations which the CIoJ is organising is a next step towards raising awareness of the difficult conditions in which many journalists have to work in their pursuit of truthful and ethical reporting.

Judith Ryser