More needed to protect journalists
10.12.08The film began a panel discussion on “media development in conflict areas: safety comes first.”
Rodney Pinder, director of the International News Safety Institute and a panel member, called the film “a most moving film … a tribute to those of our colleagues who have died.”
Pinder said that the journalists were “murdered to silence them and to intimidate others,” adding that “no one had been brought to justice.”
“All that we ask … is that these countries (where the killings have taken place) apply their own laws against murder to journalists.”
Other panel members included: Santiago Lyon, director of photography, The Associated Press; Carlos Cortes Castillo, executive director of the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP), Colombia; Donat M’Baya Tshimanga, Journalist En Danger (JED), Congo; and Alan Johnston, of the British Broadcasting Corporation, who had been held hostage for four months in the Gaza Strip.
Pinder said the safety of journalists “is crucial to any media development,” adding that freedom of expression “cannot happen when journalists fear for their lives.”
Lyon said that the many technological changes that have occurred in the field of journalism have made things easier for journalists – and more dangerous.
Now, Lyon said, a reporter in a conflict zone can file a story on the Internet and a militiaman can drop in at an Internet café, see the story and know the whereabouts of the journalist.
Satellite technology has also made the job easier and more difficult, Lyon said. He explained that with satellite technology, the journalist can remain in the conflict area and become more vulnerable.
Lyon said media must rely increasingly on local journalists who know the local culture, language and customs. But those local journalists face “the most severe and sustained danger.”
If an Iraqi photographer arrives at the scene to shoot pictures, Lyon said, that local photographer may face the hostility of the U.S. military, the Iraqi authorities and the Iraqi people.
The mental health of journalists also must be considered, Lyon said, adding that the effect of some stories on journalists can be profound. He said journalists live and operate in a culture in which it is thought that problems can be solved at a bar.
Johnston said, “We have paid a terrible price. … Over the past three years three of my colleagues have been killed.”
He said journalists sometimes take great risks to get the story, but he believes that the BBC “takes safety very seriously. … I never at any time felt that the BBC was putting me at risk.”
But Johnston added that “no organization, no matter how big it is, can protect you all of the time.”
Castillo gave a rundown on the work of FLIP, which was founded in 1996. He said that between 1986 and 1996 more than 50 journalists were killed in Colombia. In 2001 the government created an Official Protection Program for Journalists, which FLIP oversees.
Castillo stressed solidarity among journalists and within newsrooms.
M’Baya said that in three years six journalists have been killed in Congo.
“When we see these murders … all indices show that the killers wanted to eliminate the journalists,” adding that “there has never been a serious investigation by the authorities.” This, he concluded is every indication of a cover-up by the state.
M’Baya said there is in Congo “a syndicate of crime, the syndicate has the protection of the authorities.”
He said the authorities go through the motions of holding trials, “but generally they (journalists) are just being killed like dogs.”
M’Baya said international media coverage of the killings does not get back to the locals. “Before the international media takes it up, we Africans need to stand up and say, stop it, we are fed up.”
From the audience, Tina Carr, director of the Rory Peck Trust, noted that in all the discussion there had been no mention of the danger faced by freelance journalists.
Pinder said one of the problems is that a lot of news organizations are cutting staffs and depending increasingly on freelancers and they are not being provider for adequately.