Thankfully he never came under attack and had to decide whether to position the plate at the front of his ballistic vest (to protect his organs) or at the back (to protect his spine). Journalists’ safety was once merely a consideration for reporters covering conflict; nowadays it’s an issue that affects all media workers, from those covering corruption to those drawing cartoons. In the past six weeks alone four Mexican journalists have been killed simply for doing their job. Journalists’ safety at a grassroots level  The need to strengthen the culture of journalists’ safety at a grassroots level is one that INSI feels passionately about. The death of Hashem al-Hamran, a 17-year-old cameraman who was killed in January in Yemen, was even harder than usual to process. Last month I spoke to journalism students at Northampton University about what they can do to stay safer as they go out into the workplace, and also discussed the difficulties of civilians covering conflict on a panel for the think tank PS21. As the Zika virus continues to plague parts of the Americas, we issued an advisory from the Fleet Street Clinic in London on safety considerations for journalists reporting from those countries affected by the outbreak. We also offered safety advice for reporters covering February’s elections in Uganda and Niger.  UNESCO discusses best practices  INSI joined more than 300 media professionals at UNESCO headquarters in Paris last month to talk about how we can strengthen journalists’ safety, at a time when the profession has never been so dangerous. INSI Chair Richard Sambrook summarised best practices on the topic, which ranged from offering adequate safety training to all journalists (freelance and contracted), carrying out thorough risk analyses, raising awareness and increasing solidarity. INSI Board member, and Director of Swedish Radio, Cilla Benkö gave a face to the casualty statistics when she spoke about her colleague Nils Horner, who was killed in Kabul. Read her account on the current threat to freedom of expression on our blog here. INSI has been campaigning for journalists’ safety since 2004 and is pleased the topic is now being discussed at an international scale, but concrete actions must follow to ensure journalists are better protected. We are looking forward to conducting a crisis management workshop later this month at the International Press Institute’s (IPI) World Congress in Doha. The class will focus on how to keep your team, newsroom and reputation safe in a rapidly changing security risk environment, and you can register for the Congress here. INSI members will receive a reduced rate.  Anna Bevan is INSI’s Assistant Director. Photo by AFP