Live News - A Survival Guide - International Federation of Journalists

Live News — A Survival Guide for Journaliststion and follow-up when journalists are threatened or harmed. TheIFJ initiative is not so much a physical place as a project that willdevelop its objectives through campaigns. It will disseminate informationto journalists and their organisations and work withColombian NGOs, IFJ offices and affiliates in Latin America and theIFJ in Brussels.The first initiative of the Solidarity Centre, launched onColombia's National Day for Journalists, February 9 2003, was acampaign to highlight safety. The campaign, supported by FLIP andlocal journalists’ associations, focused on press freedom and onviolations of freedom of expression. It urged warring sides in theColombian armed conflict and those involved in corruption to stopassassinating journalists. It presented as its key message: “No moremedia victims of the armed conflict and corruption: we are not thetarget; we are the foundation of democracy.”Northern IrelandThis ability to see a common interest across a conflict has been afactor in Northern Ireland, an intractable struggle which has led tothe deaths of thousands of people, but where journalists haverarely been targeted. Despite decades of armed conflict, it was notuntil September 28 2001, when all the paramilitary organisationswere supposedly on a ceasefire, that a journalist was targeted andkilled.Martin O'Hagan, 51, a reporter for the Sunday World who wroteabout loyalist paramilitaries, was shot in his home town of Lurgan,County Armagh, as he walked home from a pub with his wife.Responsibility for O'Hagan’s murder was claimed by the Red HandDefenders, a name used by the Loyalist Volunteer Force. Other journalistshad been threatened and another Sunday World journalist,Jim Campbell, was seriously wounded by the Ulster Volunteer Force(UVF) in 1984. However, it is remarkable that journalists have beenable to work throughout the conflict in relative safety, facing moreor less the same risks as other members of the population plus theextra risks for reporters and photographers who work at the sceneof riots and explosions.AfricaJournalists in many African countries have been attacked, jailed orkilled, and many continue to be at risk. Where press freedom isfragile, and where newspapers, TV and radio channels are oftenDON’T WORK ALONE ORWITHOUT BACKUP…In an article written following themurder of Martin O’Hagan, NUJexecutive member Kevin Coopergave the following advice.Anyone offered work in NorthernIreland should not take it onunless:◆ you have previous experienceof working in conflict;◆ the media organisation isproviding backup; and◆ you will not be asked to workalone — one of the mostdangerous things you can doin a conflict.111