We live in difficult and dangerous times for journalists. This year more than 60 of our news media colleagues have been killed doing their work, but for many more 2017 has been a year of tragedy and trauma. At INSI, it has been one in which we have seen the threats to journalists grow and change.
Read our annual review.
The frontlines of safety have shifted – wherever journalists work nowadays, they need to be mindful of more physical, psychological, and digital risks than ever before. In Europe and the United States, the relentless pressures of breaking news, much of it with a traumatic content, has weighed heavy on colleagues, many of them unused to covering such painful stories close to home. If foreign correspondents prepare for war coverage by receiving training and taking with them their physical flak jackets, those sent to cover these stories have often found themselves exposed without an emotional flak jacket and at times physically unprepared.
Whether it be in physical, psychological, or digital safety, INSI is committed to responding to its members’ needs individually and collectively. We’ve worked hard to widen our membership base and are delighted to have welcomed several news organisations to our international network. INSI’s core belief is that every journalist should be able to work safely wherever and whenever she or he works.
Only by guaranteeing journalists’ safety can we ever hope to guarantee press freedom and in these dark times, we need to work together to ensure that is the case.
Image by AFP
