The following is a press release from signatories of the Global Safety Principles and Practices.
NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 2015 — A foundation honoring the memory of
murdered freelance journalist Steven J. Sotloff and four major U.S. television
news networks signed onto the Global Safety Principles and
Practices at a meeting at the Columbia School of Journalism in
New York on September 30th and October 1st.
The group – an alliance of news organizations, freelance
reporters and non-profit journalism groups to promote safety — also announced
unprecedented initiatives to share security information; provide subsidized
safety training to freelancers; conduct a census of freelancers that could
reduce their insurance costs and better inform journalism students of grants
and other resources available to freelancers.
The 2LIVES/Steven Joel Sotloff Memorial Foundation, ABC News,
CBS News, CNN and NBC News were among ten new signatories to the safety
principles announced at the meeting. Article 19, Global Radio News, Kyodo News,
PayDesk and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) signed on as well.
“We believe in this initiative,” said Frank Urrutia, a
member of the 2Lives board who attended the Columbia meeting. “It is worthy of
recognition and support.”
Since the safety principles were unveiled in February, more than
80 organizations have signed onto them, including the overwhelming majority of
global wire services, non-profit journalism groups, U.S. television networks
and the Frontline Freelance Register, a London-based group that represents over
500 freelancers who regularly cover conflict.
“This initiative marks a turning point,”
said Tina Carr, Director of the Rory Peck Trust, an organization dedicated
to the support of freelance journalists worldwide.”The combined efforts of such
an experienced and diverse group, with its clear aim and concrete objectives,
will have a significant effect on the future safety of freelance journalists.
After 20 years of helping freelancers in dangerous situations, we are very
excited by this.”
The initiatives announced at the meeting, which was hosted by
the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, included:
Agence
France Press will lead an effort to conduct the first-ever census of
freelancers worldwide to determine if a freelancer insurance pool can be
created. David Millikin, Agence France Press’s North America Director, is
heading the effort.
BuzzFeed
will lead an effort to create the first-ever private, informal group where
security directors from U.S. news organizations can confidentially share
security information with one another. Freelancers will have access as well to
the information, which would include immediate concerns and new developments in
a given region. The initiative is being headed by BuzzFeed ‘s Global Director
of Security Jason Reich.
The
Committee to Protect Journalists announced that Levick Communications, a
Washington, D.C. based communication firm, will provide pro bono communications
assistance to the safety principles.
The Frontline Freelance Register will continue supporting
freelance journalists in their work and will propose a set of standards for
training journalists that will ensure freelancers are adequately trained and
more employable.
The GroundTruth Project will put 20 independent journalists
through a safety training course for covering climate change and infectious
disease in the first quarter of 2016. GroundTruth developed the training module
in partnership with Global Journalist Security and has already put nine
reporters and editors through the course as a part of a three-year climate
change reporting initiative.
The
International Press Institute, a Vienna-based press freedom group, will
encourage news organizations worldwide to sign onto the safety principles
as it prepares for IPI’s March 2016 World Congress in Doha. John Yearwood, the
Miami Herald’s foreign editor and IPI’s Executive Board Chairman, will lead the
effort.
Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) will lead an effort to distribute to U.S. journalism
schools a 17-page inventory RSF has compiled that lists where freelancers can
receive safety training, medical insurance, travel grants and other support.
Delphine Halgand, RSF’s U.S. Director, is heading the initiative.
Reuters
and Hawthorne Proactive, the security firm that trains Reuters journalists
worldwide, will provide a five-day Hazardous Environment and First Aid Training
(HEFAT) course in Belfast, Northern Ireland to 14 freelancers in November.
Reuters is covering all costs of the training – accommodation, food and the
course itself – but not travel to Belfast. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting and other groups will cover travel costs for applicants who can
demonstrate a clear financial need but the budget is limited. Applications can
be submitted here.
The
Rory Peck Trust (RPT) will run more refresher safety training
courses, providing individual bursaries and working with partners to
enable freelancers to update their skills. RPT will expand support around
trauma, creating a pool of practitioners so that it can respond to freelancers
in a timely and affordable way; negotiating and contributing to treatment
fees. And RPT will run risk assessment surgeries, based on the RPT
Online Resource templates for safety and security, providing accessible and
free guidance to freelancers.
The
safety principles leadership group – known as the Task Group – along with other
attendees also unanimously adopted the following non-discrimination
statement:
Violence, harassment and discrimination against
any journalist based on gender, race, sexual orientation or disability should
not be tolerated under any circumstances. Editors and news organizations should
employ a zero tolerance policy. Media organizations should clearly delineate
consequences for engaging in these behaviors; create a safe and confidential
environment for reporting such incidents and take immediate action to
investigate and hold appropriately accountable the perpetrators of such acts
under their employ be they staff, fixers or freelancers. It is best practice to
apply the same anti-discrimination policies to freelancers as to staff.