NEWS published on 05 Feb 2016

EBU Members contribute to UNESCO conference on ensuring journalist safety

Representatives from EBU Members have joined other media organisations at an international conference aimed at sharing best practices on the safety of journalists.

The 'News Organizations Standing Up for the Safety of Media Professionals' event on 5 February was organised by UNESCO at its Paris headquarters. Its purpose was to provide a platform to discuss the existing measures to maintain the safety of journalists and to facilitate the emergence of new synergies through improved collaboration among UN Member States on these issues.

Those speaking at the conference included EBU Vice-President and Director General of RAI Monica Maggioni, EBU Board Member and Director General of Sveriges Radio (SR) Cilla Benkö. Gerda Meuer, Director of Programmes at Deutsche Welle, Cecile Megie, Director General of RFI and Richard Sambrook, former EBU Vice President and chairman of INSI .

Addressing the conference Monica Maggioni told delegates: “The EBU provides a safe harbour for many journalists in war and conflict zones. When we see the Eurovision sign we feel less alone and more protected.”

“We are facing new times,” she added. The risks I experienced when I was a war correspondent in Iraq in the Nineties are totally different from now. Journalists have become tools that warring parties use as part of their political/terror strategies.”

Gerda Meuer, director of programmes at Deutsche Welle, told the conference: “For public service media news is of the utmost priority and we have increased our investments in this field. The safety of journalists is also paramount. We provide training for our journalists before we send them to risk zones and we now have put a big focus on preventing kidnapping. Of course we also take in account the difficulty for women journalists to operate in certain countries or regions.”

Peter ter Velde, Foreign News & Security Coordinator from NOS News in The Netherlands echoed the emphasis now placed on journalist safety:  "At NOS after some hard experiences faced by our journalists in the field, it is now is mandatory for any journalists going to war/conflict zones to have taken a safety course. We usually follow the EBU's HEST course and we also make sure our freelancers also receive the same training. Nobody from NOS , even external collaborators, can go into the field without having developed these core skills."

The EBU’s Media Director Jean Philip De Tender is also attending the conference.

“Every 5 days a journalist is killed whilst carrying out their job. Safety in journalism is important for press freedom and we must do all we can to make sure reporters are protected in areas of conflict," he said.

"The EBU works hard to provide access for journalists so they can report freely by creating safezones, training staff and creating unique apps like Zerorisk.”

Areas for discussion at the one day conference include developing good newsroom practices on working conditions and post-trauma recovery programmes, enhancing safety for freelancers and social media producers and developing a dialogue between the media industry and UN Member States to end impunity for crimes against journalists.

In response to this last issue, EBU Executive Board member Cilla Benko from SR welcomed the idea of having a “special rapporteur” to the UN to deal with impunity in cases where journalists are killed or persecuted for their work.

She warned that despite all the precautions and safety measures one could take, journalists cannot avoid all risks. Following the death of a SR journalist in Kabul, Cilla Benkö told delegates that she went to meet the authorities there to discuss how the investigation into the journalist's death was progressing, but came back deluded, because, "it was clear that Afghan authorities will not be able to deal with these kind of problems."