Live News - A Survival Guide - International Federation of Journalists

Appendix 2Statistics on deaths of journalists and media workers1990-2002The IFJ attempts to collect and record the names and circumstancesof all journalists and media workers who are killed,and has compiled a list of 1,192 who have been killed overthe past 12 years. No list can be entirely accurate — and this onecomes with a number of qualifications. There are difficulties in collectingthese data due to a combination of lack of information anddifficulty with definitions, such as who is a journalist, and werethey killed because of their work?Moreover, it can be argued that looking only at those who die inthe course of their work does not give an accurate picture of therisks. What about those who are injured, or whose confidence ormental health is destroyed, rendering them unable to work? Theseare all good questions, that will not be answered by looking at thesecharts and figures. However, the charts do give a broad overall picturethat reinforces many of the key messages in this book. Theyshow patterns of risk, that allow us to learn important and potentiallylife-saving lessons. One way to ensure that these journalistsdid not die in vain, is to learn from their deaths, and to reduce thiswaste of talent and commitment.The IFJ list differs from that of other organisations in one importantrespect, in that the IFJ includes all media workers. This mustbe the right approach. It would seem wrong if, when a car carryinga driver, translator, reporter, camera operator and technician isblown up, only some of the people count as media casualties. TheIFJ list also includes journalists wherever it seems likely they weretargeted because of their work. It includes journalists who areknown to have died as a result of an accident in the line of theirwork (although this information is limited, since the death of ajournalists in a road traffic accident on their way to a routine jobis unlikely to be recorded).There are some instructive lessons, not least from statistics ondeaths from accidents. The number of journalists killed in helicopteraccidents, for example, is significant. The figures, unbalancedthough they may be from two large-scale incidents, also show thatphotographing volcanoes appears to be an especially dangerousline of work. One of the biggest single journalistic losses in recentyears came when 16 Japanese journalists died along with 40 scien-121