The Dangerous Quest for News

At least 1,200 reporters have been killed worldwide over the past 12 years and no one has been brought to justice in about 95 percent of the cases, said Aidan White, secretary general of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

In Iraq alone, more than 50 reporters and media staff have been killed since the US-led invasion in March 2003, according to figures from the IFJ, which represents half a million correspondents globally.

Desperate to combat the problem, 14 media associations signed a declaration after a two-day meeting in Geneva to make journalism safer, primarily by pressing governments to comply with international laws that safeguard reporters, namely the Geneva Conventions on the rules of war.

"If governments today honored the obligations they already have under international law we would not be facing the crisis we have," White told a news conference at the end of the meeting, which was also attended by non-governmental organizations and human rights groups.

At present, he said, countries failed to investigate media deaths or provide journalists with adequate protection and at times were even responsible for the murders. "This declaration is a good step forward. We have started a process, which we now know we will continue," said White.

Proposed symbol would act as a bulls-eye

But the accord fell short of some participants' desire to establish a press emblem that would alert people to the media in a similar way as the Red Cross symbol and UN flag are used to identify aid workers.

Instead, the IFJ merely promised to study the idea after fears were expressed that such an emblem -- the word "PRESS" written in black letters on an orange-colored disk -- would make many reporters in hot spots such as Iraq or Colombia an even easier target for those who oppose their work.

"A visible identification mark for journalists would be calculated suicide," Henrik Zörner, spokesman for the German Journalists Federation, told DW-WORLD.

In some conflict areas it might make sense to identify the press with a universal emblem, he said, but in others, such as Iraq or the former Yugoslavia, where journalists are often singled out, such a marking would have the reverse effect of protection.

The German organization is not alone in being torn between wanting to protect its members and worrying that an emblem might backfire.

"There were diverging opinions on the emblem so we decided to look deeper into the practical and legal issues involved," said Blaise Lempen, a founding member of the Press Emblem Campaign, a group of largely Geneva-based correspondents that organized the meeting, and a strong advocate of the idea.

A convention was needed to create a universally-recognized press logo, backed by the full support of governments and international law, that would arm anyone who is harmed wearing it with strong legal redress, Lempen, a reporter for the Swiss news agency ATS, said during the talks.

The real issue of increasing deaths

In contrast, Rodney Pinder, director of the International News Safety Institute, a recently-established body that groups about 60 news organizations, argued that debate on an emblem was a dangerous distraction to the real issue -- the fact that more and more journalists are dying.

"There is already a well recognized emblem -- the 'press' and 'TV' signs that are often displayed -- yet journalists are being killed now in greater numbers than ever before," Pinder told AFP on the sidelines of the meeting.

A perception that people can target journalists with impunity coupled with the perceived loss of the media's neutrality in conflict zones were far more pressing matters, he said.

White agreed that it would be difficult to generate support from major news organizations for a new emblem when already established mechanisms to protect journalists are ignored.

Signatories to the document -- which also promises to create a group of experts who will draw up a list of practical measures that can be taken to boost the protection of journalists -- included the IFJ, the European Broadcasting Union, the syndicate of Iraqi journalists and media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders. They are due to meet again in the United Arab Emirates early next year.