It seems ironic now and desperately sad that we were discussing how the industry could come together to better protect freelancers like him. A few weeks later, John was kidnapped in Syria for the first time along with a Dutch colleague. He was later shot in the arm as they escaped. When he was back in the UK, he had been planning to give my organisation, the International News Safety Institute, a background briefing on some of his experiences. But in the end it didn’t transpire. Weeks after this and less than four months after his first kidnap, he returned to Syria. He is thought to have been seized for the second time in November 2012 with the American freelance photographer James Foley who has since been killed. Last week INSI announced the launch of an in-depth study into how the safety landscape has changed and is changing for members of the news media and we hope that this will provide a much-needed look at what more can be done to protect all those in the industry. Let’s make no mistake, journalism has and always will be a job that is sometimes difficult and dangerous. Most journalists know that conflict zones, countries with civil unrest and those torn apart by natural disaster or the absence of law can be unsafe places and that sometimes they might find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. But most journalists also do everything they can to mitigate those risks. This includes preparing thoroughly in the same way they would research any story, receiving safety and first aid training, having insurance and contingency plans and taking the right protective equipment and kit, which they know how to use. But this seems to be one of the darkest periods for the safety of journalists and I don’t remember a time when my colleagues were being targeted with such frequency: detained, kidnapped, beaten, assaulted, harassed and subjected to threats against their families and their lives. In a world where there is no longer a sense of immunity but often outright hostility, freelancers such as Foley, Steven Sotloff and John often bear the brunt of those risks. On Thursday, in the hours before the news about John, it emerged that a BBC team had been attacked in southern Russia, their cameraman beaten and equipment smashed, as they investigated reports of Russian personnel being killed near the border with Ukraine. The BBC later lodged an official complaint with the authorities in Moscow, but the attack showed that even those supported by major broadcasters are not immune. We don’t know the exact reasons for this descent into insecurity, but several factors are clearly involved. Since the start of the Arab uprisings, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of freelancers being kidnapped, injured or killed. In part this is because there are more freelancers in journalism and more of them covering conflict. With fewer jobs in newsrooms coupled with the closing of overseas bureaux, many freelancers have turned to conflict to cut their teeth and some organisations have turned to them to fill the gaps in their coverage. Sometimes they are doing the work that staff journalists did previously but often with less of the structure and support of their employed colleagues. Also, the recent conflicts have been geographically easy to access and cheap to cover, with the low cost of small, portable equipment meaning that anyone can be a multimedia journalist. And anyone can find an outlet as the rise of social media and the growing prevalence of non-traditional news sources have increased the platforms that can be served with news. Most news organisations take seriously the issue of the safety of their employees and those journalists who represent them, even if only temporarily. But the safety environment is now so challenging that even the most established companies have had to review their procedures. Last year, for instance, the Sunday Times told freelancers not to submit photos from Syria because it did not want to encourage them to take “exceptional risks”. Other media organisations have pursued a similar policy of not accepting unsolicited material. Still, the risks freelancers face are often greater than those of their employed counterparts and there are many still working in hostile environments who do not have the right protective equipment, training and insurance, even though most are extremely responsible and simply struggling against inordinate costs and threats to do their jobs. In 2006, INSI was instrumental in the passing of UN Resolution 1738 which condemns attacks on journalists, saying they should be treated as civilians and had to be respected and protected. In the eight years since then, numerous countries and self-appointed authorities have flouted this resolution, leading some of my colleagues to argue that the only possibility of retribution for the targeting of journalists now would be to make it a crime against humanity. This latest video showing John is an appalling attempt by Islamic militants to intimidate journalists like him who take extreme risks, in order to shine light into the darkest recesses of society and document the lives of those whose stories need to be told. As long as his captors are allowed to use him as a pawn in their propaganda, they will continue to send a message that journalists can be manipulated as they see fit. It’s no longer enough, it seems, for the detractors of journalists to be killing the messenger. Now the messenger has become the channel for someone else’s despicable message. Hannah Storm is the director of INSI See the original article here. AP Photo