· Last week, the
international community focussed on the state of safety of journalists. On
Wednesday (February 3, 2016), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
released its 25th report on journalists and media staff killed since 1990. The
report lists the killing of 2,297 media professionals due to violence in
journalism. This number includes 112 journalists who were killed in 2015 alone.
The IFJ report also highlights the fact that from double digits at the start of
these publications, the figures reached three digits in 11 years, peaking to
155 killings of journalists and media staff in 2006, the deadliest year on
record, and the growing impunity with which the lives of journalists are
extinguished by different illiberal forces professing myriad ideological views.
·
Two days after the release
of the report, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation organised a day-long international conference of “news
organisations standing up for the safety of media professionals”. It aimed at
providing news organisations a platform to discuss the existing and new
measures to strengthen journalists’ safety worldwide and engage with member
states on these issues. The conference brought together many high-level
representatives of news organisations from all regions, including community
media and small media outlets together to share good practices on the safety of
journalists and highlight the issue of journalist safety more proactively.
·
The IFJ report pointed out
that wars and armed conflicts account for a number of deaths. But these deaths
are only a part of the grim numbers. According to IFJ general secretary Anthony
Bellanger, there were other reasons, often removed from the war theatre, for
targeting journalists, many of whom are victims of organised crime barons and
corrupt officials. “It is a recurring finding of our reports that there are
many more killed in peacetime situations than in war-stricken countries,” said
Mr. Bellanger.
·
The IFJ report estimates
that only one of ten killings is investigated. Mr. Bellanger seeks an active
intervention to stop the tide of violence against journalists. He said: “It
requires governments to comply with their international obligations by
investigating journalists’ killings and bringing those responsible to justice,
thus deterring future violence. It depends on the willingness of the United
Nations and its agencies, as the custodians of international instruments which
enshrine the right to physical integrity of all human beings, to enforce these
guarantees for the benefit of journalists and other media personnel.”
·
Preventing
violence against journalists
The attack on journalists generates a huge international fury and an optical illusion of a concerted action to put an end to the impunity with which men and women who wield the pen are killed. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution at its 68th session in 2013, which proclaimed November 2 as the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ (IDEI). This resolution not only condemned all attacks and violence against journalists but also urged member states to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists. It called upon states to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference.
The attack on journalists generates a huge international fury and an optical illusion of a concerted action to put an end to the impunity with which men and women who wield the pen are killed. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution at its 68th session in 2013, which proclaimed November 2 as the ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ (IDEI). This resolution not only condemned all attacks and violence against journalists but also urged member states to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists. It called upon states to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference.
·
The first lesson we learn
as journalists is that no story is worth dying for, and most journalists do
take necessary precautionary measures to protect themselves. But it is the
stark political reality that emboldens the perpetrators. Some of the misplaced
questions from the authorities are: why was the reporter present in a conflict
area? Why do you want to cover violence? The acts of violence are by non-state
players and so why should the state be held responsible for the killing? It is
important to understand that numbers and statistics are inadequate to explain
the sense of loss to a society by these wanton acts of violence designed to
silence voices. The killing of journalists creates an atmosphere of fear, intimidation
and an eerie silence.
·
My first international
assignment was to cover Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Indo-Sri Lankan
accord in 1987. It was the time when the island-nation was at war both in the
north (between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Indian Peace
Keeping Force) and in the south (between the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the
Sri Lankan Army). I was fortunate to know Richard de Zoysa, an editor with the
Inter Press Service, who guided me through the developments in the south, and
Kumaraguru Kugamoorthy, an employee of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation,
who provided insights into the developments in the north.
·
I was unfortunate that I
also had to record their ‘disappearances’. On February 18, 1990, de Zoysa, 32,
was abducted and killed and his body was found near Lunawa beach near Colombo.
On September 20, 1990, Kugamoorthy was waylaid and abducted while he was
returning from work. That was the last heard of him. In his 1989 poem, de Zoysa
captured the role of a journalist using an elegant metaphor:
·
“I am the eye of the camera
·
Can only reflect, never
reject
·
Never deflect.
·
I am the eye of the Camera
·
Silent recorder of life and
death
·
Eye that can only reflect
·
Never conjure up images
·
Probe the reality
·
Never reject.”
·
Neither the killer of the
journalist nor the prosecution agencies seems to read poems.
·
readerseditor@thehindu.co.in
(Courtesy: The Hindu, February 8, 2016)
