Seven countries, including Britain and the United States, have joined in a new move to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones, the International Red Cross (IRC) said. France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Denmark also committed themselves to accept a new non-binding accord on protecting correspondents in line with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare.
Media rights campaigners cautiously welcomed the pledge, but said its effectiveness would be measured by what the countries did in practice. Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said "Our primary concern is that these legal principles are not respected in practice." He said his group's research had found that US military forces have been responsible for the deaths of 16 journalists in Iraq. "While we have not found any of these incidents to be deliberate attacks on the press, none have been fully investigated."
The IRC proposed the pledge as a way of strengthening protection of journalists, whose rights are already guaranteed in sections of the 1949 treaty on the rules of war. Under the pledge, countries promise to educate their soldiers and security forces in international humanitarian law.
The agreement also asks them to preserve media independence and act against those who seriously violate the rights of journalists. (Via AP/Google)
