London - A leading British Member of Parliament has congratulated INSI on its report into journalist deaths, "Killing the Messenger", and has urged the government to respond positively to its safety recommendations.

Don Foster, media affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democratic party, sponsored an Early Day Motion in Parliament saying the House of Commons "condemns attacks on journalists and seeks to end impunity for such killings."

The motion, introduced on Monday, had by Thursday attracted the signatures of 28 MPs of all parties.

The Motion:

INVESTIGATION OF JOURNALISTS' DEATHS

23.04.2007

Foster, Don

That this House condemns attacks on journalists and seeks to end impunity for such killings; welcomes Government support for UN Security Council Resolution 1738; congratulates the International News Safety Institute (INSI) on its comprehensive report Killing The Messenger, on journalists' deaths in the last decade; commends INSI's safety recommendations to journalists and news organisations; notes that INSI urges all militaries to follow the lead on military-media operations in wartime given in the 2006 UK Ministry of Defence Green Book following discussions with INSI and the News Safety Group; endorses INSI's recommendations to the military that embedding journalists inside military units has no legitimacy without reporting by independent journalists and that the media's presence in battle must be communicated swiftly to military units in that area; endorses INSI's insistence that full and open enquiries into media deaths be held as soon as practical, with prosecutions where appropriate, and that failure to act on the killing of journalists allows `criminals to dictate what citizens read and see'; urges the Government to respond positively to INSI's global report; and further urges the Government to help resolve the unlawful killing of ITN's Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003 and to press for the re-opening of the UN's investigations into the killings of journalists in Timor-Leste, including British citizens Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters in 1975 and Sander Thoenes of the Financial Times in 1999.

Details are on the parliamentary website http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33099&SESSION=885

Any questions should be addressed to Rodney Pinder, email rodney.pinder@newssafety.com or mobile +44 7734 709267