Safety of journalists tops agenda at UNESCO meeting

NUJ President, Odusile

OWING to the increasing danger that media professionals encounter in the course of bringing news and information to the public, news organisations around the world have been urged to step up safety measures.

At the February 5, 2016 conference at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, about 300 media leaders shared ideas on how to enhance the safety of journalists and end impunity for attacks on them. President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alhaji Abdulwaheed Odusile represented the country at the one-day conference with the theme, News Organisations Standing up for Safety of Media Professionals.

The concrete actions news organizations can take include: adopting safety protocols for newsrooms, taking advantage of safety training provided by NGOs, conducting risk analysis, and supporting freelancers. Other ideas raised were the use of mobile apps for journalists to report attacks, and coverage to raise awareness and show solidarity.

The Paris conference, which also involved dialogue with UNESCO Member States representatives, witnessed active participation of media leaders, unions and social media. It helped strengthen the media as a key actor in providing safety for journalists and tackling impunity.

Participants at the Paris meeting also highlighted the importance of strengthening solidarity between media, from local and community radio to mainstream media.

“One of the important points of the conference is that we saw that the whole world was supporting us,” said Jesus Dureza, Publisher of the Mindanao Times and President of the Association of the media owners of Philippines (PPI). “ And you can’t underestimate the importance of this feeling.”

A smaller follow-up meeting on 6 February gathered 25 participants from the conference who explored additional steps such as setting up national mechanisms to monitor and report on safety and impunity. It also gave further attention to the status of freelancers in dangerous areas and improve their safety and protection, with bodies such as the Global Safety Principles and Practices for Freelancers developed by the ACOS (A Culture of Safety) alliance.

During the 5 February conference, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, stressed in her remarks the importance of “building broad base co-operation, to enhance safety of journalists and end impunity” in the framework of the UN Plan of Action of Safety of Journalists. The Director General also announced that she “agreed on the importance of the proposal for a special representative on journalist safety, within the Office of the United Nations Secretary General”.

Amongst the participants were senior representatives of The Associated Press; the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Thomson Reuters, France Media Monde, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, European Broadcast Union, Prisa, AMARC and the Inter-American Press Association.

Sessions were moderated by Chanel 4’s Siobhan Sinnerton, BBC’s Zeinab Badawi, and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour who is also UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety.

Jim Boumelha of the International Federation of Journalists called for greater action by governments and the UN to protect journalists, while Erik Bjerager, of the World Editors Forum, said the media itself could do much more.

President of RAI, Monica Maggioni highlighted that the nature of conflict is changing and it is becoming more dangerous for media companies to decide to send their reporters to report from the battlefield, since some extremists “consider journalists to be an instrument in war”. Doug Jehl, foreign editor at The Washington Post reiterated that journalists are being persecuted, not only because of what they write but what they represent.

Director General of Swedish Radio and Mustafa Souag, acting Director-General of Al Jazeera, Cilla Benkö reiterated that democracy needs journalists to be alive, but that in recent years they observe that the number of attacks is growing. Veran Matic from Serbia’s B94 pointed out that the morale of the professional community suffers if the murder of fellow colleagues is not solved.

Deputy editor-in-chief of Russia’s Sputnik news agency, Pavel Andreev said: “The problem starts with the newsroom. Unless we start reporting on these issues ourselves nobody will pick it up for us. There is an issue of selective reporting – we cannot allow ourselves to report one death but not others. We have to cover all killings and wrongdoings against journalists no matter where, leave aside double standards. We have to stop talking about journalists deceased in the line of duty as martyrs but as heroes.”

Deputy Director General of UNESCO, Getachew Engida said in his closing remarks: “Governments must do more. The UN must do more. Civil society must do more. And the media industry must do more.”

UNESCO’s Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Guy Berger spoke of the symbiotic relationship between press freedom and safety of journalists.
The conference was organized under the auspices of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication, and supported by six media groupings, a foundation and six Member States.

New edition of Safety Guide for Journalists out

ON the occasion of February 5, 2016 conference tagged ‘News Organizations Standing Up for the Safety of Media Professionals’ at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Reporters Without Borders and UNESCO launched the latest edition of the Safety Guide for Journalists: A Handbook for Reporters in High-risk Environments.

The 130-page guide offers essential information and practical advice for journalists to assist them before, during and after an assignment in dangerous areas. The publication comes in a context of developing threats against media professionals, with more than 700 journalists killed in the past decade for reporting the news. In 2015, more than 105 journalists were killed, while many more were threatened, imprisoned or kidnapped for simply doing their work of bringing news and information to the public.

The Safety Guide for Journalists contains a wide range of essential information to enhance the safety of journalists. It stresses the importance of well-prepared planning before taking assignments in dangerous missions and gives essential tools for journalists. The guide is useful for all those who work in news and information and who report from hostile environments, such as conflict zones, violent demonstrations, riots and terrorist attacks.

The first edition of the Safety Guide for Journalists was produced in 1992. Since then, it has been updated and translated into several languages and widely distributed. The new version, available in Arabic, English French and Spanish, addresses new threats and challenges to an increasingly dangerous profession.

Social media: Restricting an evolving digitalised revolution

In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Eric Hoffer (writer and philosopher)

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
In the 21st Century also termed the Century of the Fourth Industry Revolution (4IR); the role of the social media cannot be wished away or watered down. With the world population put at 7.4Billion and China’s population put at 1.357Billion, the social media statistics which are available online are more than enough for all to ruminate on.

Social media users globally for 2015 were put at 1.96billion. 2016 is projected to be 2.13billion. 2017 is projected to be 2.29billion. Whilst 2018 is projected to hover about 2.44Billion users. At the juncture, you should know that as at 2012, global active social media users was just 1.4Billion.

How many people use Facebook monthly? Global figures put it at 1.59Billion. Totla number of Facebook daily active users? 1.038Billion.

Twitter has about 320 million users. Twitter’s monthly active users is put at 1billion. And active Twitter users on mobile devices is put at 3.9Million

China is a nation with a population of 1.357Billion and has about 600Million Weibo registered users. Weibo is a microblogging platform commonly referred to as the “Chinese Twitter”. China is a goldmine for Twitter but Beijing has so far denied Twitter entry into China for now when you consider that out of the 600Million registered Weibo users; 222Million are active.  And around 100Million are daily users.

The enormity of social media’s influence is still evolving and transcends individuals, cities and borders. One undeniable grandiloquent truth standing out with unblemished immaculacy is that social media is such a powerful tool for people, politicians, corporations, institutions and governments to disseminate awareness or information. To be Nostradamus-like and forecast the futuristic trajectory of this digitalised revolution would be foolhardy. Guess work would be the order of the day because social media is still evolving, changing lives(crowd funding from good Samaritans to pay pressing tuition and medical bills etc) to cutting bureaucracies(interacting directly with government officials etc) to awareness and enlightenment (NGOs breaking down state policies into simple to read and understand literature). And accountability (keeping governments and corporations on their feet by asking tasking but necessary questions.) The list is endless. But not many welcome this change. A change they are not comfortable with. A change that puts one on the stage and the audience is the global community.

THE ERA OF DIGITAL REVOLUTION
The potential and influence of social media manifested during the 2008 American Presidential campaigns when Barack Obama’s chief blogger; Sam Graham-Felsen who is a veteran social media strategist, technology analyst. As the blog director of the New Media committee, Sam wrote for and oversaw BarackObama.com/blog, worked with key national and state bloggers to promote the campaign’s message, helped direct the campaign’s online rapid response operation, and produced and collaborated on dozens of online videos for the campaign. The result was the use of social media to source for over hundreds of million for dollars for the Obama campaign. Millions donated by the public. Sam who was in Lagos in 2011 now writes books as he informed me in 2015.

Another example was the unrest in Iran some years ago. Social media and internet services were shutdown during the unprecedented unrest. A Persian lady was shot by the police and a video showing her pass away went viral. The citizens who refused to kowtow to the whims of the then government, found a way around the ban. They began utilising the power of the Bluetooth. As you would know, files can be shared and transferred between Bluetooth devices within a specified radius.

The Egyptian phase of the Arab Spring was said to have gathered momentum online via Facebook. The crackdown on the administrators of the Facebook page didn’t impede the galvanisation of Egyptians to Tahrir Square; who were fed up with the Mubarak regime. As usual, the government shut down social media platforms but it is known that a top American IT expert who was with his Egyptian colleagues in Cairo at that period; got in touch with his close friend-a founder of one of the popular social media platforms for assistance; in providing an alternative to the shutdown; an alternative, some now refer to as a proxy. It was done and the rest is history. Even though, on a BBC documentary the administrators of that Facebook page and organisers of the Tahrir Square protests are now saddened by the turn of events in Egypt.

SPEAK, SILENCE, SOCIAL MEDIA
With all candour, the attempt to restrict the use of social media is a fallacy of hasty generalisation by governments not comfortable with the perspicacious and politically aware electorate who are becoming IT savvy. The world is changing. The old ways of banning the press or rather the old ways when governments sunk their fangs into the jugular of the press and the vocalised masses will not do. A lot of leaders globally would prefer to be ruined by praise rather than saved by criticism. Social media amplifies that plethora of constructive criticism to digital decibels which cannot be controlled. And this lack of control is what governments not loved by their citizens or governments who are up to political mischief to their benefit; are wary of.

Social media vocalizes the collective criticism and political predicaments of a society usually churned out by a sangfroid politically aware people. When a government bans or shuts down social media platforms; it implies that officials cannot prognosticate or forecast the outcome of a present predicament (most times it is usually a popular unrest which they aren’t comfortable with or the likelihood of not winning an election). A case in point, is the Ugandan election of Thursday February 18, 2016; when the government shutdown social media with the official statement that it was for “security reasons and that full access would return on Monday, the 22nd”. But Ugandans found proxy channels to bypass the social media ban and still posted pictures, results etc using #UgandaDecides. MTN Uganda which shutdown service must have counted the cost of not operating her MTN Mobile Money Service; for on the evening of the Election Day; the mobile money service resumed.

When a government arrogates to itself the monopoly of wisdom and bans social media especially during a “perceived crisis” (which is usually to retain control); the same social media the government must have utilised to her political advantage; usually this brazen move completely befuddles the citizens who begin to think outside the box and creatively find smarter ways to circumvent the ban. The result is a collective effort by like-minded individuals online; who might have had only an interest in governance but now a commitment. No thanks to the restriction of social media.

Montesquieu (1689-1755) said, the deterioration of a government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. Social media trumpetizes a government’s decay and its attendant decadence like no other platform. In his book (The Principles and Benefits of Change); the late Dr Myles Munroe stated that the old ways of leadership have lost their effectiveness and must yield to the new equation of the 21st Century leadership.

Let me add that 21st Century leadership must embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) which the social media is a part of. Connoisseurs of media (Print, TV, Radio, Digital and Social) know that restricting social media is the genesis of political hara-kiri by any government. Social media is evolving; the magnitude of its influential power cannot be quantified due to its rippling or domino effects. And with anything taking its natural course, restricting what should be on social media would be a collective effort resulting in societal good and not for political advantages; which seems to be the case in several global instances; cloaked as accountability for statements made whilst simultaneously delegating freedom of speech.

Dolapo Aina,
Lagos, Nigeria