INSI marks 5th birthday on World Press Freedom Day - helping save journalists' lives

INSI NEWS RELEASE

INSI marks 5th birthday on World Press Freedom Day - helping save journalists' lives

Brussels, 2 May - The International News Safety Institute, set up to make news coverage safer in conflict and other danger areas around the world, celebrates its 5th birthday on Word Press Freedom Day on Saturday.

More than 1,000 journalists and critical support workers, such as translators, drivers and fixers, have died trying to tell the story over the past 10 years -- and the numbers have been growing yearly since the millennium.

INSI was formed by a unique coalition of news organisations, journalist support groups and individuals to address the crisis and provide practical help to journalists and other news professionals working in conditions of extreme danger. It is unique -- the only journalist support group solely dedicated to safety in news.

Every time a journalist is murdered a door is slammed on the free flow of information on which the world depends for the success of economies and good governance, the alleviation of poverty and sustainable development.

In the words of UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura: "Free and independent media…are highly relevant to the challenge of poverty eradication, including the recognition and strengthening of basic human rights, a stronger civil society, institutional change, political transparency, support to education, public health awareness…"

INSI was launched as a non-profit charity on World Press Freedom Day 2003. Reporting conflict, crime and corruption and other man-made and natural disasters can never be safe, but INSI is working on a broad front to try to make it safer and help journalists survive the story.

INSI is now established as the global centre for journalist safety issues.

On the front lines of danger, INSI as provided safety training free of charge to 864 news media professionals in 16 countries who otherwise would have received none.

"This is the heart of INSI's mission -- practical, pragmatic help for those most in need," said Director Rodney Pinder. "We equip journalists better to survive the story."

In addition, INSI has:

  • Conducted a global inquiry into the causes of journalist deaths around the world -- the most comprehensive ever -- which produced a report and recommendations for action by governments and international bodies. It established the shocking fact that most journalists were killed not in wars but in peacetime, murdered as they probed crime, corruption and other political and economic evils in their own countries.
  • Helped secure the passage of landmark UN Resolution 1738 in December 2006 on the safety of journalists in conflict. It aims to end the culture of impunity which in many countries protects the killers of journalists and encourages more of the same.
  • Set up a global kidnap & hostage crisis help facility to assist news organisations hit by a kidnapping for the first time.
  • Led a team of news organisations which persuaded the British Ministry of Defence to recognise journalist safety in war as a major concern. It has pledged that British forces will never knowingly target the news media.
  • Conducted a unique survey of the requirements of female news staff in danger zones Created a global safety information network in support of all news media, with its website www.newssafety.com as its hub.
  • Staged a series of major debates for journalists on critical safety issues, and created an institutional memory in INSI to ensure matters of concern are recorded and followed through.

    "These are real achievements, but there is more -- much more -- do be done," Pinder said. "Hundreds of thousands of our friends and colleagues are working in dangerous circumstances around the world. We hear their cries for help and responding is our greatest challenge.

    "There can be no press freedom, no free expression, where journalists are under threat."

    INSI is a non-profit charity dependent on contributions for its work. Donations go to helping journalists and other news professionals in desperate need in the most practical way – by providing the tools with which they can better defend themselves.

    Please join INSI as a member or make a donation by clicking on the tab on this website. Every contribution goes to helping colleagues in need of protection.

    For further information about this news release please contact INSI Director Rodney Pinder, email rodney.pinder@newssafety.com, mobile +44 7734 709 267

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