"This report examines the key issues surrounding threats to the physical safety of journalists, particularly in countries with hostile media environments. While acknowledging the serious impact of repressive measures such as imprisonment, the focus of the report is sharply on incidents of violence.
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[...] If the problem of violence against journalists has so far proven intractable, enough strong research, analysis and advocacy has been done over the past two decades to provide a clear understanding of the challenges—and some potential answers. Drawing on the experience of press freedom experts, and especially on the insights of some of those on the front lines of violence, these are recommendations for action that could improve the hopes of true solutions: get the facts, and get them as straight as possible; more targeted coordination of efforts by international organizations; create a pilot project of independent investigation; toughening the policy approach; broaden the approach to training, and fund it better." (Executive summary, page 5-7)
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"Killing the Messenger reveals the dangerous new face of war and journalism. Covering armed conflicts has always been dangerous business, but in the past, press heroes like Ernie Pyle and Edward R. Murrow faced only the danger of random bullets or bombs. Today’s war correspondent is actually in th
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e cross hairs, a target of combatants on all sides of conflicts. In their own words, correspondents describe the new dangers they face and attempt to explain why they are targeted. Killing the Messenger reveals the dangerous new face of war and journalism. Covering armed conflicts has always been dangerous business, but in the past, press heroes like Ernie Pyle and Edward R. Murrow faced only the danger of random bullets or bombs. Today’s war correspondent is actually in the cross hairs, a target of combatants on all sides of conflicts.
In this book, correspondents describe the new dangers they face, and attempt to explain why they are targeted. Is it simply that modern combatants are more brutal than in the past, or has journalism changed, making correspondents players, rather than observers, in modern warfare? Extended interviews with correspondents who have been abducted and tortured during Middle East conflicts shed chilling light on this new face of war. These journalists, who have paid dearly to bring first-hand images of war to the public, offer some surprising insights into the nature and motivation of their kidnappers, and the reasons why reporters are targeted. They display no self-pity and little inclination to blame anyone other than themselves. At the same time, they are candid in describing the violence within Iraq and without. Ways to reduce the risks for reporters are discussed, but these editors and correspondents suggest that, short of withdrawing into isolated and protected enclaves, they may be facing an indefinite escalation of violence against journalists." (Abstract)
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"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
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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)
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"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
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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)
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"S'il y a eu moins de journalistes tués dans l'ensemble du monde en 1997 - vingt-six journalistes sont morts dans l'exercice de leur fonction -, les autres formes de violations de la liberté de la presse ne se sont pas atténuées. Il y avait, au 1er janvier 1998, environ 90 journalistes emprisonn
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és pour leurs activités professionnelles. Les agressions, interpellations, arrestations, condamnations d'éditeurs et de journalistes, les saisies et la censure de publications sont demeurées à peu près les mêmes que les années précédentes. Le planisphère de la liberté n'a pas non plus changé d'apparence. Sur les 185 Etats qui siègent aux Nations Unies, la situation demeure mauvaise dans quatre-vingt pays, et extrêmement mauvaise dans au moins trente autres. Il n'y a pas de surprise : la carte de la liberté de la presse coïncide avec celle de la démocratie et du respect des droits de l'homme. Si l'on s'était fait des illusions, on ne les a plus : l'implosion de l'empire soviétique et l'effondrement du modèle communiste au début des années 90 n'ont pas signifié la fin du totalitarisme. La bête a la vie dure. Le rapport de Reporters sans frontières analyse la situation de 140 pays de tous les continents." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"In identifying the chief types of U.S. anti-press violence, the author discusses four basic patterns: violence among individuals, violence against ideas, violence against groups, and violence against an institution. Each pattern has its own chronology. Five models of the press in U.S. history are d
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eveloped: rational liberty, partisanism, commercialism, industry, and institution. The author implicitly argues that media ideologies are rooted in media practices. The outline of media models is meant to illustrate the point that media are defined historically. Media are networks of relationships that can be constructed, reconstructed, and deconstructed in various ways with varying implications for where power is located and how it is exercised. Violent activity is often involved in the process of definition. Maintaining that violence has been an integral part of the culture of public expression in this Nation since earliest times, this survey develops the concept that violent reactions to writers and publishers, rather than occurring sporadically, have been systematic and recurrent, indicative of a long and consistent process of cultural evolution. Disputing claims that anti-press violence is a marginal aspect of American society conducted by fringe elements of the population, the book profiles decades of such incidents of aggression, from colonial printers to Salman Rushdie. The author presents a detailed taxonomy of the various forms of anti-press violence and historical analyses of such conflicts during the American Revolution, Early Republic, Civil War, and other periods. Chapter notes, a subject index, and appended survey questionnaire and discussions of the flow of antiabolitionist violence and Civil War newspaper mobbings." (Abstract)
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