"Journalists face unusual challenges when covering violent or mass tragedies. They face the possibility of being a first responder to a violent event. They interact with victims dealing with extraordinary grief. Journalists who cover any “blood-and-guts” beat often build a needed and appropriate
...
professional wall between themselves and the survivors and other witnesses they interview. But after reporters talk with people who have suffered great loss, the same wall may impede the need of journalists to react to their own exposure to tragedy. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies wrote the following for Poynter.org on Sept. 15, 2001: “Reporters, photojournalists, engineers, soundmen and field producers often work elbow to elbow with emergency workers. Journalists’ symptoms of traumatic stress are remarkably similar to those of police officers and firefighters who work in the immediate aftermath of tragedy, yet journalists typically receive little support after they file their stories. While public-safety workers are offered debriefings and counseling after a trauma, journalists are merely assigned another story.” In the future, we know that we’ll face more tragedies — more dates that will leave lasting memories for victims, communities and ourselves. The practical tips in this booklet can help you become more effective in handling these vital areas." (Page 3)
more
"The IFJ has campaigned for many years for greater safety and for a focus on the in-country journalists and freelances who are at greatest risk and who have the least protection. With the creation of the International News Safety Institute (see pages 103-105), that is beginning to happen. This book
...
is part of the process. It takes the experience of those who have reported from and filmed in hostile zones and tries to draw lessons to save lives. But safety is not just an issue when bullets start flying. It is also about creating a culture of risk awareness in all aspects of journalism —whether in war zones, investigative reporting or reporting events from the streets. We have attempted to spotlight the needs of local journalists, but much of the available information comes from international correspondents, and from training courses set up for the giants of the electronic media. The IFJ will use this book to spread the message of safety, but we will also help our regional offices to produce local versions to draw out local experience. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience amongst journalists who live and work on the front line of conflict and who have learned to survive while continuing to do their jobs. Those lessons and that knowledge need to be pooled and the courage and tenacity of those journalists needs to be honoured. This is a small step in that direction, and we dedicate this book to these true heroes of our profession." (Preface by Aidan White)
more
"This guide is both ambitious and modest. Ambitious because it wants to help journalists working in war situations. Modest because we have no miracle solution to offer. But the suggestions you will find in this guide, based on an all too often ignored common sense, should help many reporters to stee
...
r clear of a lot of problems. We have recalled first key documents that spell out the principles of press freedom, along with charters and declarations concerning the journalistic profession. They come from all over the world, ranging from the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights to the Munich Charter about rights and duties of journalists to a charter the staff of the Japanese newspaper Nihon Shinbun Kyokaï use as guidance. As well as general documents, we thought it very important to include practical advice, such as the BBC gives to all its journalists when they go on a dangerous assignment. We have listed all the precautions to be taken to give better protection in such situations, such as where there are snipers, where people are taken hostage and when journalists are ambushed or have to pass a checkpoint. And when these measures fail, how to start saving a wounded or injured person. Also in the guide are how to go about investigating press freedom violations, as well as a list of the operating rules of the International Committee of the Red Cross and NGOs involved in freedom of expression. These recommendations are practical ones based on long experience in the field. With each new edition, we add suggestions from journalists who work daily in conditions of constantly changing information techniques and technology." (Preface)
more
"Although it is an issue of immediate interest to reporters and press organizations, antipress violence has not elicited a great deal of scholarly attention. While in the context of developed democracies, studies have concluded that violence against the press has significantly diminished in the twen
...
tieth century, the situation is markedly different elsewhere. This gap is not surprising considering that the literature on press and democracy has been largely produced in the West and has largely reflected the absence of antipress violence in Western nations. The persistence of attacks against journalists outside the West, however, makes it necessary to put it at the center to analyze the situation of journalistic labor and the prospects for the press in historically weak democracies. This article analyzes antipress violence by focusing on the Latin American case. The argument is that in postauthoritarian situations, the breakdown of the state accounts for why the press, particularly investigative reporters and publications, is the target of violence. Antipress violence reflects the impossibility of the state’s fulfilling its mission to monopolize the legitimate use of violence and the lack of accountability of those responsible for the attacks. Because it is a central arena in the battle for public expression, the press becomes a prominent target when naked violence replaces the rule of law. The fate of the press is intrinsically linked to the fate of the democratic state. There cannot be a democratic press as long as the state does not secure minimal institutional conditions that democracy demands." (Abstract)
more
"This article analyses the ways in which socio-political opposition is expressed by looking into the morally loaded discourse of political legitimacy in Burkina Faso that emerged after the assassination of the journalist Norbert Zongo in December. Through the analysis of different political statemen
...
ts, newspapers and various comments from the ‘ street’, it locates the struggle against impunity in a social and political undercurrent in Burkinabe society. In this context, notions of the public space are central, because the public space defines both the boundaries of public debate and the behaviour of key political actors. Two recurrent themes in Burkinabe political discourse, namely ideas of truth and courage, and the legitimacy of White people, illustrate the various ways in which socio-political opposition seeks to define the public space within which politics is to be practised and the behaviour to be observed by those acting there. But the struggle against impunity also takes place on a symbolic level at which key symbols are appropriated, interpreted and incorporated into political discourse." (Abstract)
more
"It is the goal of this note to explore this problem with a particular emphasis on potential methods by which the international community can work to protect the press. In order to better understand this problem as it exists today, this note begins with a historical analysis of the development of in
...
ternational efforts to remedy and prevent it. This analysis is not meant to be comprehensive, but merely to provide some insight into the historical development of this problem on the international stage. In the interest of continuity, this historical analysis is organized with an overall topical structure as opposed to a strictly chronological one. This note then addresses a variety of methods by which the international community could take action to protect journalists in the future. It is ultimately the goal of this note to generate workable suggestions for a future regime, both preventative and punitive. Although it remains unclear what can be done in the aftermath of one of the single most lethal years for journalists in the history of the profession, it is deadly clear that something must be done." (Abstract)
more
"The notion of survival skills and safety guidelines has been slow to catch on with top media managers in the United States. In Europe, the BBC, ITN and Reuters mandate training for foreign correspondents. It has taken an era of international terrorism to spark a stronger push on the home front." (A
...
bstract)
more
"The September 11 attack on the twin towers and the subsequent anthrax incidents have created a growing debate and subsequent concern with what is now termed urban war corresponding. A realization is emerging that those correspondents who covered September 11 (who may not be war correspondents) may
...
also need help and training in order to deal with possible post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)." (Abstract)
more
"Not long after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a memo from the American Press Institute went out to US news editors and reporters, advising them on the “correct” way to utilize photographs in crisis reporting. In part the directive said, “our backs are to
...
the podium and our cameras are focused on the faces of the crowd” (Lower 2001). This was curious, for among photojournalists the idea of using images to draw from and upon the public rather than to depict the events being witnessed was antithetical to what good journalism is supposed to do." (Abstract)
more
"This article examines the development of freedom of the press and censorship in Egypt and the Arab world. Further, it discusses patterns of influence on freedom of the press and their impact on Arab journalists. It finds that press freedom in Arab countries and the performance of Arab journalists a
...
re still threatened by a censorial political culture, one that develops in an environment usually dominated by a single political party. Overt censorship and self-censorship are commonplace in the Arab news media today and journalism education programs, just as the media themselves have, in fact, been recruited into a national enterprise for the production of propaganda. The technological changes sweeping the world will increase the pressure for change and make issues of censorship obsolete as journalists find outlets for reporting among transnational media." (Abstract)
more
"Des actions urgentes doivent être menées par la communauté internationale des journalistes pour diminuer l’ampleur de la crise à laquelle les journalistes de la région sont confrontés. La FIJ, en coopération avec d’autres agences non-gouvernementales et intergouvernementales, devrait met
...
tre ce qui suit à exécution le plus rapidement possible :
1. Établir un Bureau pour la sécurité fournissant aux journalistes palestiniens du matériel et des possibilités de formation afin de diminuer les dangers auxquels le personnel des médias travaillant dans la région est confronté.
2. Fournir de l’aide humanitaire aux journalistes et au personnel des médias victimes de la violence en leur attribuant des ressources spécifiques en provenance du Fonds international pour la sécurité des journalistes.
3. Protester vigoureusement et mener campagne contre les tentatives de négation du statut professionnel des journalistes palestiniens et contre le retrait de la carte du GPO.Parallèlement, la FIJ doit insuffler une vigueur renouvelée au travail qu’elle accomplit en faveur de ses membres, tant en Israël qu’en Palestine. Les conditions auxquelles les journalistes palestiniens sont confrontés sont particulièrement difficiles et exigent une attention renforcée. La nature du journalisme dans la région a au-delà de la dimension politique de ses débuts. Aujourd’hui, les freelances et le personnel des médias du secteur privé représentent une part importante de la communauté palestinienne des journalistes et il faut faire davantage pour prendre pleinement leurs intérêts en compte. Par conséquent, la FIJ devrait :
4. Renforcer les efforts consentis par le Syndicat palestinien des journalistes pour améliorer son niveau de représentation et son action syndicale effective pour la défense des droits sociaux des journalistes dans les territoires palestiniens.
5. Soutenir des séminaires et des activités visant à encourager la solidarité professionnelle. Ce travail devrait être centré sur l’amélioration des conditions sociales et sur l’augmentation du nombre de membres du Syndicat par le biais, si cela s’avère nécessaire, d’une révision des statuts du Syndicat.
6. Prendre note du projet du Syndicat de créer un centre de journalisme à Ramallah, ouvert aux journalistes locaux et internationaux, et faire ce qui est en son pouvoir pour soutenir cette initiative.
7. Essayer le plus rapidement possible d’obtenir que la Fédération nationale des journalistes israéliens (NFIJ) s’engage à défendre, dans la région, les journalistes victimes de violence ou de violation de la liberté de la presse, quelle que soit leur nationalité [...] (Recommandations)
more
"This article identifies a trend in international law addressing the murders of journalists in Latin America. Recent cases by international human-rights tribunals are analyzed for their holdings that murders of journalists violate the free-expression guarantees of the American Convention on Human Ri
...
ghts, the hemisphere's leading human rights treaty. These rulings required governments to investigate attacks on the press in good faith, punish journalists' assailants, indemnify journalists' survivors, and protect journalists working in war zones. This article concludes that this international case law, though developing slowly, offers a new weapon in the fight against vengeful and violent attacks on the press." (Abstract)
more
"The document discusses the Inter American Press Association's (IAPA) project on unpunished crimes against journalists. Over the past decade, more than 200 journalists have been murdered for doing their jobs reporting the news. Many of these crimes remain unsolved, allowing impunity to prevail. The
...
IAPA's project aims to draw attention to this problem and bring perpetrators to justice in order to discourage future crimes against journalists and protect freedom of the press. The document outlines some of the IAPA's investigations and efforts to engage other international organizations in supporting this cause." (Horacio Ruiz, https://www.slideshare.net)
more
"Journalists' on professional assignments often face hostile actions by political and military authorities, de jure or de facto. Such hostility ranges in severity from censorship, utilization of harsh laws of defamation, restriction or denial of access to sources of information, denial or revocation
...
of a work permit or license, denial of entry or exit visa, restriction of movement, and expulsion; to detention, disappearance, attack, torture, and even murder." (Abstract)
more