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Panelists Alarmed by Rising Numbers of Journalists Killed, Injured
The kidnapping and brutal murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan made headlines around the world earlier this year.
What’s not nearly so well known is that at least eight other working journalists have been killed covering the war in Afghanistan. Another three have been killed and many more injured in Israel and Palestine over the last year and a half. Others have been beaten, tortured and killed while investigating drug crimes or trying to shine a light on a government’s human rights atrocities.
The fact that journalism is getting more dangerous may be best illustrated by a statistic from Stephen Jukes, global head of news for Reuters: Of the 24 Reuters news service journalists killed on the job over the past 140 years, 11 have died in the past decade.
Jukes made the point at a June seminar in Washington, D.C., titled “Helmets and Flak Jackets Required: The Challenge to Media When Journalists Work Under Fire.” He was one of a dozen journalists and security experts assembled by The Newspaper Guild-CWA, NABET-CWA and several other organizations to sound the alarm about a growing problem. “We have to convince editors that we’re in a new era,” said Roy Gutman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at Newsweek.
Not all news organizations need convincing. Reuters, CNN and a few other organizations have responded to the growing danger through training, appropriate equipment and counseling, participants said. And the deliberate targeting of Pearl — a former Guild member — has shocked many others into paying attention.
Speaker after speaker acknowledged that the days when journalists could expect at least some degree of safety as neutral observers are over. Increasingly, armed conflicts occur not between nations but among ethnic and religious extremists who don’t observe the “rules” of war.
Even national governments are viewing reporters and photographers as potential security risks or enemy agents. Speakers pointed to Israeli soldiers opening fire on reporters and the U.S. military’s hostility toward journalists in Afghanistan, sometimes expressed at gunpoint.
Despite enormous profits, news organizations keep cutting budgets. One result is that a growing percentage — the majority, some speakers said — of front-line journalists are freelancers who get no specialized training, little institutional support and no health or life insurance.
Cost-cutting is so rampant, said Doug Allmond, a camera operator for ABC and president of NABET-CWA Local 52031, that two- and three-person crews increasingly are being replaced by solo photographers with no one to watch their backs.
The dangers aren’t just physical. “We all, as journalists, think we can take it,” said Bruce Shapiro, of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. “But we’re all masses of soft tissue and even softer emotions.”
NPR reporter Neal Conan concurred. He recalled his own attitude of “no blood, no harm” while covering several armed conflicts and how it stopped him from getting the post-traumatic counseling he badly needed.
For media outlets willing to make the investment, training and protective gear are increasingly available. Two speakers, for example, were British commandos who now run courses for journalists and others who work in combat zones. And Kevlar vests, helmets and other protective equipment can be purchased as easily as digital cameras and sound-recording equipment.
But panelists generally agreed that the biggest obstacle to increasing journalists’ safety isn’t financial or logistical but cultural. For instance, Martin Turner, Washington D.C. bureau chief of the BBC, said news organizations have to overcome their natural competitiveness to ensure mutual survival. “The price of failing to share information, the price of being competitive, is death, “ he warned.
Speakers also warned that journalists aren’t only at risk on foreign battlefields anymore, not in an era of urban riots, mass protests and terror bombings. “The threats we face are around the corner,” said Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, another sponsor of the seminar. “They’re not necessarily foreign and they’re not necessarily overseas.”
What’s not nearly so well known is that at least eight other working journalists have been killed covering the war in Afghanistan. Another three have been killed and many more injured in Israel and Palestine over the last year and a half. Others have been beaten, tortured and killed while investigating drug crimes or trying to shine a light on a government’s human rights atrocities.
The fact that journalism is getting more dangerous may be best illustrated by a statistic from Stephen Jukes, global head of news for Reuters: Of the 24 Reuters news service journalists killed on the job over the past 140 years, 11 have died in the past decade.
Jukes made the point at a June seminar in Washington, D.C., titled “Helmets and Flak Jackets Required: The Challenge to Media When Journalists Work Under Fire.” He was one of a dozen journalists and security experts assembled by The Newspaper Guild-CWA, NABET-CWA and several other organizations to sound the alarm about a growing problem. “We have to convince editors that we’re in a new era,” said Roy Gutman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at Newsweek.
Not all news organizations need convincing. Reuters, CNN and a few other organizations have responded to the growing danger through training, appropriate equipment and counseling, participants said. And the deliberate targeting of Pearl — a former Guild member — has shocked many others into paying attention.
Speaker after speaker acknowledged that the days when journalists could expect at least some degree of safety as neutral observers are over. Increasingly, armed conflicts occur not between nations but among ethnic and religious extremists who don’t observe the “rules” of war.
Even national governments are viewing reporters and photographers as potential security risks or enemy agents. Speakers pointed to Israeli soldiers opening fire on reporters and the U.S. military’s hostility toward journalists in Afghanistan, sometimes expressed at gunpoint.
Despite enormous profits, news organizations keep cutting budgets. One result is that a growing percentage — the majority, some speakers said — of front-line journalists are freelancers who get no specialized training, little institutional support and no health or life insurance.
Cost-cutting is so rampant, said Doug Allmond, a camera operator for ABC and president of NABET-CWA Local 52031, that two- and three-person crews increasingly are being replaced by solo photographers with no one to watch their backs.
The dangers aren’t just physical. “We all, as journalists, think we can take it,” said Bruce Shapiro, of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. “But we’re all masses of soft tissue and even softer emotions.”
NPR reporter Neal Conan concurred. He recalled his own attitude of “no blood, no harm” while covering several armed conflicts and how it stopped him from getting the post-traumatic counseling he badly needed.
For media outlets willing to make the investment, training and protective gear are increasingly available. Two speakers, for example, were British commandos who now run courses for journalists and others who work in combat zones. And Kevlar vests, helmets and other protective equipment can be purchased as easily as digital cameras and sound-recording equipment.
But panelists generally agreed that the biggest obstacle to increasing journalists’ safety isn’t financial or logistical but cultural. For instance, Martin Turner, Washington D.C. bureau chief of the BBC, said news organizations have to overcome their natural competitiveness to ensure mutual survival. “The price of failing to share information, the price of being competitive, is death, “ he warned.
Speakers also warned that journalists aren’t only at risk on foreign battlefields anymore, not in an era of urban riots, mass protests and terror bombings. “The threats we face are around the corner,” said Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, another sponsor of the seminar. “They’re not necessarily foreign and they’re not necessarily overseas.”