On INSI’s 10th anniversary, thank you for your support

May 3, 2013 Leave a comment

By Hannah Storm

 INSI logo_3-colourDear Friend of INSI,

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the International News Safety Institute and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your commitment to us and your support over the past decade.

We were established in 2003, dedicated to safeguarding the lives of all journalists everywhere. Born of a unique coalition of media organisations, press freedom groups and human rights campaigners, since then INSI has been providing safety advice and training to our friends and colleagues who work in dangerous and difficult conditions to bring home the story.

Read more of this post

Filed under Comment, INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , ,

‘If life is cheap in Mexico, then the life of a journalist is even cheaper’: An interview with Bernardo Ruiz, director of ‘Reportero’

January 8, 2013 2 Comments

By Helena Williams

Sergio Haro

An image from Bernardo Ruiz’s ‘Reportero’, which follows journalists working at Mexican newsweekly Zeta, including Sergio Haro (pictured) (Photo: Bernardo Ruiz)

Documentary film maker Bernardo Ruiz knew he had uncovered an important story when what was supposed to be a 30 minute meeting with a journalist in Mexicali, Mexico, in 2009, turned into a three hour discussion.

Ruiz met Sergio Haro, a reporter for Tijuana-based Zeta magazine, while researching a story about youth migration in Mexico. The conversation he had with the veteran reporter led to the creation of ‘Reportero’, a documentary following journalists at Zeta as they cover the cartels in Mexico, which has had its launch in the United States this week.

For decades, the journalists at the independent newsweekly have been writing about corruption and crime – despite death threats and targeted attacks. To date, Zeta has had two of its staff murdered, including co-founder Hector Miranda.

The film focuses on Haro and Adela Navarro, the current editor of the paper. Both have encountered death threats during their time there.

Read more of this post

Filed under INSI Blog, Interviews Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One thousand two hundred and seventy three: the number of journalists killed since INSI began

December 7, 2012 Leave a comment

By Rodney Pinder

Protesters shout slogans during a rally at Quezon city, the Philippines, in 2006, to protest spate of killings of left-wing activists and journalists in the country. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Protesters shout slogans during a rally at Quezon city, the Philippines, in 2006, to protest spate of killings of left-wing activists and journalists in the country. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

One thousand two hundred and seventy-three – that’s the number of journalists and support staff who have died trying to cover the story since we set up INSI in 2003.

That’s the number that was foremost in mind when I retired last month after a decade as Director, and one of the founders, of the International News Safety Institute.

Read more of this post

Filed under Comment, INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Newsletter: November 2012

November 30, 2012 Leave a comment

INSI's Hannah Storm produced a panel discussion of women journalists for News Xchange 2012 (News Xchange)

INSI’s Hannah Storm produced a panel discussion of women journalists for News Xchange 2012 (News Xchange)

By INSI

November has been a month of real transition at INSI, with the departure of our founding Director and President and the arrival of a new team to lead INSI into its second decade.

We know there has never been a greater need for an organisation such as ours, dedicated to the safety of journalists around the world. We deliver safety advice and training to those who need it most, while working closely with those who make the decisions to send journalists into dangerous and potentially hostile places.

Sadly, as we look ahead to the work we need to do, the reality is that we are heading towards the darkest year on record for the safety of journalists.That was the sombre and compelling message delivered by INSI to the United Nations Interagency meeting on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity earlier this month in Vienna.

As we approach the final weeks of 2012, we are aware of 121 colleagues who have died or been killed because of their work so far this year. Fourteen of those were killed in November. And yet, this dark month coincided with what appears to be a concerted movement by the international community to work together to do something to change this dire situation. Hence, INSI was pleased to play a role in the Vienna meeting and take part in the discussions there with different UN agencies, member nations and non-governmental organisations about how this approach might improve the safety of journalists.

Read more of this post

Filed under INSI Blog, Updates Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

“We are heading towards the darkest year on record for the safety of journalists”

November 23, 2012 2 Comments

By Hannah Storm

A Filipino activist place candles on top of mock coffins during a rally on the second International Day to End Impunity to denounce killings of journalists in suburban Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Today, November 23rd, marks the International Day to End Impunity.

It was a word with which I wasn’t familiar before joining the International News Safety Institute, but today it is one of the biggest threats to journalism safety.

We hear a lot about the famous international journalists who are killed or die doing their jobs. But for each one of them, there are many more journalists whose deaths go largely unrecorded.

Read more of this post

Filed under Comment, INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

153 mock coffins commemorate journalists killed in Philippines

November 23, 2012 1 Comment

By Helena Williams

Filipino journalists and supporters marched carrying mock coffins during a rally to denounce killings of journalists in suburban Manila, Philippines on Friday Nov. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Protesters carried 153 mock coffins through Manila today to commemorate slain media workers and highlight the culture of impunity that still reigns in the Philippines.
The coffins represented the number of journalists killed since 1986, 32 of whom were slain three years ago today in the Maguindanao massacre – the deadliest single attack on journalists in recent history.

Read more of this post

Filed under INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , ,

Do or let die – UN and journalists vow to fight global media safety crisis

October 19, 2012 Leave a comment

Top news organisation and NGO representatives attended the conference, and approved a UN draft plan of action (CFOM)

By Helena Williams

“If a coked-up twelve year old with a Kalashnikov steps out from behind a bush and points it at me, I can’t wave the Declaration of Human Rights at him and say ‘you can’t do that, I’m a journalist.’”

Al Jazeera English’s executive producer Dairmuid Jeffreys’ comment reflected what many journalists in the room felt.

Yesterday’s Journalism Safety Conference, organised by the BBC College of Journalism and Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) was marred in scepticism. Little wonder: the discussion was made to a room full of journalists.

Read more of this post

Filed under Comment, INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

UN human rights body throws weight behind safety for journalists

September 28, 2012 Leave a comment

By Helena Williams

The Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva (KEYSTONE/Sandro Campardo)

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council affirmed for the first time the importance of journalist safety as a fundamental element of freedom of expression and called on states to protect journalists against violence.

The 47-member body passed a resolution that urged countries to “promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently” and to fight impunity by ensuring “impartial, speedy and effective investigations” into acts of violence against journalists.

Read more of this post

Filed under INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Malaysia conference offers journalists a ray of light in the dark

September 24, 2012 1 Comment

By Hannah Storm

Journalists display placards during a protest outside the headquarters of the Philippine National Police at suburban Quezon city in the Philippines on Monday Aug. 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

INSI’s Deputy Director Hannah Storm has been in Malaysia at a regional conference for journalists. She represented INSI on a safety panel.

Today I learned that there is no local word in the Philippines for ‘impunity’. And yet there have been 153 examples of this in the past 16 years because that is the number of journalists whose murderers have got away scot free.

Despite this, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines refuses to give up its fight to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of so many, whilst its members also strive to improve safety standards for the country’s media workers despite threats to their own security and attempts to silence them.

I’ve been honoured to spend time with the NUJP’s General Secretary Rowena Paraan this week at a regional conference for journalists.

Read more of this post

Filed under Comment, INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Study shows Mexican journalists covering drugs traumatised as if in war

September 17, 2012 Leave a comment

By INSI

Journalists protest during a demonstration condemning the alleged murder of fellow journalist Regina Martinez in Mexico City, Sunday April 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Journalists in peacetime Mexico trying to cover drug-related stories are suffering levels of traumatic stress similar to those of war correspondents, according to a scientific study.

The survey was carried out by Dr Anthony Feinstein, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, who 10 years ago also published the most authoritative study into trauma and stress among war reporters.

He found that 25 per cent of the 104 journalists he surveyed reported they had stopped covering drug news because of intimidation directed either at them or their family – and that they reported significantly more symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and general psychological dysfunction than colleagues.

Read more of this post

Filed under INSI Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 51 other followers