The President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) , Jim Boumelha, told an international conference entitled 'News Organisations Standing Up for the Safety of Media Professionals' at UNESCO in Paris that media executives and journalists' organisations need to work together to provide journalists with protection.
M. Boumelha, who spoke at the opening of the conference on 5 February, along side UNESCO Director Irina Bokova and World Editors Forum Vice-President Erik Bjerager, said that the safety crisis in journalism is the result of increasing dangers in journalism and the failure to implement international legal instruments which are meant to protect journalists, as civilians. He argued that the conference provides an opportunity for participants to agree a collective action to promote the implementation of existing legal guarantees.
"Our task today is to build the widest coalition to ensure these instruments are fought for and implemented, " said Boumelha. "A more coherent engagement is today called for on the part of media owners, publishers and editors. And the continuing high level of media deaths cries out for more action by international institutions such as the United Nations to force governments to pay more attention to the safety crisis facing journalists and media."
Read the full statement here