The International Federation of Journalists today announced the opening of a safety centre in Ramallah, to defend and support Palestinian journalists and media staff against the risks faced by media working in the region.
The safety centre is being launched in cooperation with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and will provide vital safety assistance, advice and equipment for all Palestinian journalists and media staff. A 24-hour hotline will be set up along with a website giving practical advice and information to journalists.
“This centre will provide local and foreign journalists with on the spot help when they need it,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It will help introduce a culture of safety into Palestinian media and challenges a worrying disregard for security of media staff that has been around for far too long.”
This week an IFJ mission to Palestine carried out introductory safety workshops for Palestinian journalists and staff working for foreign media in Hebron, Jenin, Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Ramallah – five West Bank areas where news people have come under fire.
The IFJ delegation reported that the impact of these workshops had been very positive, despite concern over restrictions placed on journalists by some employers to attend the sessions. One of the principle outcomes of the workshops has been to highlight the parallel importance of safety awareness side by side with concerns over accreditation, media policy and independence.
The IFJ is also co-operating with the International News Safety Institute, the global campaign for news safety, to spearhead efforts to provide training for media staff in Gaza.
“In the past two years, the deterioration in the political situation has been matched by a new wave of violence against media staff,” said White. “We hope that a real focus on safety will help to provide some sense of self-sufficiency and risk awareness for our Palestinian colleagues.”
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The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 100 countries.
