Media Safety News and Views
April 30, 2013 Leave a comment
By Hannah Storm
The event at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia was designed to offer practical advice on what journalists can do to before they are deployed and once they are in the field, to improve their personal safety and ensure they are more resilient to the psychological and physical stresses they may face.
December 20, 2012 Leave a comment
By Helena Williams
An ambulance believed to be carrying the bodies of two western journalists, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, arriving at Alassad University Hospital in Damascus, Syria. The American journalist Mary Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed on February 22 during an intense bombardment of the Baba Amro district of Homs. (AP Photo/APTN)
Journalists killed while covering the the violence in Syria made up the majority of news media casualties in 2012 in one of the bloodiest years on record.
Preliminary findings by the International News Safety Institute show that at least 156 journalists and other media staff were killed because of their work. The global death toll is the third worst on record since INSI began in 2003.
The 33 casualties in Syria were almost double those of the second most dangerous country for journalists, Somalia, where 18 media workers were killed.
June 29, 2012 Leave a comment
Syria independence flag behind a Free Syrian Army member (Flickr/FreedomHouse2)
An attack on a pro-government Syrian television station, in which seven staff were killed and 11 kidnapped, was a stark reminder, if one were needed, that journalists are high-value targets in conflict.
It is unclear who was behind the attack, which the Syrian government called “a massacre against freedom of the press”, but rebel or renegade army forces were top of the list of suspects.
Veteran British television correspondent Alex Thomson experienced the deadly dangers of covering Syria first hand – and learned some life-saving lessons about trust and treachery.
He believes members of the rebel Free Syrian Army set up him and his crew to be shot because “dead journos are bad for Damascus”.
“Journalists have high value as targets, there’s no getting away from that,” he said in an interview with INSI.
“Damascus got huge flack out of killing (American journalist) Marie Colvin. It was wrong, it was unfortunate, it was unforgivable – but I think both sides are capable of doing that.”
May 16, 2012 Leave a comment
Colvin’s memorial service was held at St Martin in the Fields church, London, today (Helena Williams)
Leading British journalists and politicians paid tribute to a “heroic” war correspondent today in a memorial service for Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin who was killed by shellfire in Syria.
Colvin, 56, died on 22 February when a building that was serving as a media centre in the city of Homs was hit by mortar fire. French photojournalist Remi Ochlik also was killed.
April 5, 2012 Leave a comment
Two searingly different portrayals of the Libyan uprisings show the incredible impact the “true revolution” has had on two reporters’ lives.
Sky special correspondent and her news team were the first to enter Green Square on the night the Gaddafi regime crumbled (Sky/Alex Crawford)
The past year has been relentless for journalists covering the uprisings that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa.
Dozens of news media personnel have been killed covering the events since the start of the Arab Spring just over a year ago.
Many more have been injured, detained and assaulted.
The issue of safety has rarely been more pertinent, and more present in newsrooms and living rooms, as the Arab Spring has cost the lives of a number of renowned journalists, including Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya last year and, more recently in Syria, those of Anthony Shadid, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. At a time when the risks of conflict reporting are searing and stark, Channel 4′s International News Editor Lindsey Hilsum and Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, both distinguished television correspondents, say that covering Libya has had a massive impact on their lives.
