Freelancers, you have our attention.
The risks facing journalists covering conflict, crime and
corruption around the world have never been greater. And there have never been
more news organizations focused on the quest to keep them safe. On Sept. 30 a
group of more than 50 people representing reporters and media non-profits
gathered at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism to review what has
become a worldwide push to establish protocols for reporting from conflict
zones.
The effort goes by the awkward name Call for Global Safety Principles
and Practices. More than 80 news and news-related groups have signed on to
abide by new reporting standards, including the AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, Agence
France-Presse, GlobalPost, CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN. The meeting was organized by
the London-based Rory Peck Trust, which represents freelance reporters and
photographers, and David Rohde of Reuters – who escaped from captivity in
Afghanistan.
The OPC Foundation was a co-sponsor and Executive Director Jane
Reilly provided crucial logistical support. Attendees came from as far away as
Europe, and included Diane Foley, mother of James Foley, who was murdered by
ISIS in 2014. She now runs the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. Frank Urrutia was
there representing the family of Steven Sotloff, another murder victim, and
their 2Lives Foundation. Marc and Deborah Tice, whose son, freelance reporter Austin Tice,
disappeared in Syria in 2012, also made an appearance. (You will find a
compelling story about the Tices’ struggles in a recent Texas Monthly.)
Attendees broke into committees to work on strategies for getting
freelancers free safety and first aid training, insurance and easier access to
security information. Some recent developments:
● The International Women’s Media Foundation has just released an
app called Reporta, which reporters can use to check in with editors daily. The
Reporta app also issues alerts if the reporter or one of her or his colleagues
is in potential danger, and includes an SOS button to send a distress message
to designated contacts. The app then shuts down to prevent access by
kidnappers.
● Jorge Luis Sierra, a Mexican investigative reporter and Knight
International Fellow at the International Center for Journalists, has developed
an online tool that maps countries, using a color code, according to the level
of violence and the number of attacks on journalists. Sierra developed the tool
while he was a reporter in Iraq, and it is now also in use in Mexico, Panama
and Colombia.
● Efforts to provide safety training and other services to
journalists have mostly focused on Western reporters who risk forays into war
zones. Denmark-based International Media Support concentrates on local
reporters, who are often much more threatened by governments and malefactors
determined to suppress the news. In Mexico, Sierra noted, 85 local reporters
have been murdered since 2005. IMS works in about 25 countries; it was
represented at the meeting by Susanna Inkinen, who helps run the Afghan
Journalist Safety Committee.
One impediment to global cooperation: no one knows exactly how
many freelancers are out there, and how many of them want or need services. To
address this issue, in 2013 the London-based Frontline Club created the
Frontline Freelance Register – “run by freelancers, for freelancers.” FFR has
signed up 600 roving journalists “to provide members with representation and a
sense of community.” All members must sign a code of conduct promising to
obtain proper training and equipment before entering conflict zones. The group
was represented by veteran Middle East reporter Emma Beals. At the meeting, AFP
agreed to attempt a worldwide census of freelancers.
One purpose of the census is to create a viable insurance pool.
Yet the meeting reinforced one dictum from the business world: you can insure
anything. It turns out that even people who run toward danger can get insurance
– and at a reasonable price. Medical and evacuation coverage is available, with
limitations, from at least two companies: World Nomads and April Insurance.
One reason the participants in the Columbia meeting got together:
there are too many competing sets of programs and guidelines. To begin to
resolve that issue the Committee to Protect Journalists, IMS, Reporters Without
Borders, Rory Peck Trust, the OPC and other groups are working to create a
single platform that freelancers can use to obtain training, insurance and
security information. The groups will meet periodically to assess progress.
Michael Serrill, former
president of the OPC, is now himself a freelancer after a long career as a
foreign editor at Time, Business Week and Bloomberg Markets magazine.