#safety
It’s obvious what’s gained from these collaborations. As travel budgets decline, the work of far-flung freelancers is increasingly in demand, but often without any initial financial outlay from the outlets that eventually run our content. That leaves a freelancer with the near-impossible task of figuring out how to cover the cost of transportation, fixers, translators, equipment, and accommodation, while still being able to eat.
That calculation changes when a UN agency or an NGO springs for the cost of a flight or offers a place to stay.
Beyond the bottom line, there is the issue of safety.
Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review, by Andrew Green
UN Photo
I frequently advise journalists not to carry arms because doing so “can undermine your status as an observer,” which in violent and lawless societies is precisely what keeps reporters safe.
But I make an exception for Cándido Figueredo Ruíz, a Paraguayan crime reporter who has been threatened, shot at, and attacked so many times that he barely leaves his home. When he does, he’s surrounded by a phalanx of heavily armed bodyguards. He carries his own Glock automatic handgun.
Figueredo, 59, is a correspondent for the national daily, ABC Color, in Pedro Juan Caballero, a Paraguayan city that borders Brazil. The town is a global hub for drug trafficking and smuggling, and after more than 20 years of naming names Figueredo is a marked man.
“It never passed through my head to arm myself,” Figueredo told me in a recent interview. “But at the end of the day, you can’t count on someone else to risk their life for yours. I understand people who criticize me for being armed. I just ask them to live with me for one week. I think they will change their opinion.”
In recognition of his fearless reporting, Figueredo will receive the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award at a gala dinner this month in New York. He will be honored alongside journalists from Syria, Ethiopia, and Malaysia who, like him, have put their life and liberty on the line to bring people the news.
Read more by CPJ’s Executive Director at CJR.
Image: John Otis
It is hard to imagine amid the pain and sadness that anything positive could come of such brutal murders. But in the past year the families and friends of U.S. hostages have successfully rallied support for changes in the way the U.S. government deals with the relatives of captives. And media companies have been nudged–and yes, sometimes shamed–into looking at how they pay freelancers like Foley and Sotloff and ensure their safety on dangerous assignments.
Read more.
The Sotloff and Foley beheadings not only sparked widespread revulsion but led to a shift in US policy. In the aftermath of the killings, President Obama pronounced the Islamic State a threat to the US and authorized military action.
Current policies do not address the national security dimension of the targeted kidnappings and too often leave the families of the victims to fend for themselves. Nor is there efficient coordination between US intelligence agencies, between various countries involved, and between victims’ families who are often spread throughout the world. In the latest incident, reports suggest US officials were unaware that a South African teacher was being held alongside the American journalist they were trying to rescue, or that the teacher had been ransomed and was due to be released. Such information may not have changed the calculus behind the raid since Al Qaeda had threatened to kill Somers imminently. But it does represent a striking intelligence failure.
Read more.
photo credit: Larry Downing/Reuters
Who, where, how, and why journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992.
Interactive graphic courtesy of reuters
See the full graphic here.
“As journalists, we need to be honest with ourselves first. We need to have our stuff together first, and only then we can go to organizations and say, hey, if you send me on this assignment, or if you hire me for this day and I get shot, are you going to take care of me?”
– Canadian photographer Louie Palu
We have been receiving reports of harassment and the use of force directed toward journalists covering the demonstrations in Hong Kong. Most of the incidents came over the weekend with the government’s ill-advised attempt to end the protests with police force. But with tensions building today, more clashes with police seem possible.
A reporter who has been maintaining contact with us told of several incidents of pushing and shoving in recent days, and the refusal in several instances to allow journalists to enter protest areas. The police sometimes use the excuse of a lack of media credentials as their reason to prevent access. Freelancers and journalism students seem to be their favorite targets.
Here are a few resources for journalists inexperienced in covering civil disruptions like those taking place in Hong Kong. We’ll also be sharing these on our social media handles, http://twitter.com/cpjasia and http://www.facebook.com/cpjasia.
Continue reading.
Staying safe while covering protests - CPJ’s journalist security guide.
Journalists covering protests and other violent civil disturbances face legal and physical risks from all sides, often at the same time. About 100 journalists died while covering street protests and other civil disturbances from 1992 through 2011, according to CPJ research. In 2011, nearly 40 percent of work-related fatalities came during such assignments, the highest proportion CPJ had ever recorded.
Read more.
Several journalists have been attacked and brieflydetained in Egypt since Thursday while covering deadly clashes between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and security forces, according to news reports.
Photo Credit, RIA Novosti
Photographer Andrei Stenin missing in Ukraine.
