About

The International News Safety Institute (INSI) is a unique coalition of news organisations, journalist support groups and individuals exclusively dedicated to the safety of news media staff working in dangerous environments.

It is a not-for-profit charity, supported entirely by membership contributions which are channelled back into safety work.

INSI’s purpose is to create a global safety network of advice and assistance to journalists and other news gatherers who may face danger covering the news on international assignment or in their own countries.

It raises funds to provide safety training free of charge to journalists in need around the world who are unable to afford their own. It promotes measures to improve safety understanding among news organisations, militaries, governments and international bodies.

INSI is managed by journalists and overseen by an Executive Board representing major news organisations, unions and journalist support groups who are committed to safety in news coverage.

More than 1,000 journalists and critical news gathering support staff – translators, fixers, drivers and the like – have died covering stories over the past 10 years. Many died on international battlefields or on assignment to natural disasters. Most died in their home countries as they covered corruption, crime, unrest and other dangerous stories.

The majority were murdered by elements that feared exposure of illegal activities. The free flow of information, on which enlightened societies depend for efficient government, business and public education, is constricted whenever journalists are killed, beaten, threatened and forced to work in fear of their safety and that of their families.

Reporting dangerous stories can never be completely safe. But INSI believes it can be made safer.

Put simply, we aim to help journalists survive the story.