'Journalists need to be protected to carry out their jobs'

I remember my very first assignment as a foreign correspondent. It was in Nigeria in 1992.

I was working for a major international broadcaster and it was to cover an election in the most populous African country whose economy, especially oil and gas exports, was of huge significance to industrialised nations.

There was no doubt in my mind that being a journalist was respected by all competing sides.

I arrived at Lagos airport, with barely any doubt that “journalistic neuratility” - the notion that in any political or military conflict, the ability of journalists to be able to cross frontlines of wars, or political debates or religious divides would be respected irrespective of who we were or where came from.

Fast-forward nearly thirty years and the stark reality of how far we have regressed is staggering.

But it is not commented on enough. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 1992 when I flew out to Nigeria on my first assignment, a total of 44 journalists were recorded to have lost their lives reporting the news.

Since then the total has, tragically, risen to 882. Statistics are impersonal. Cold, factual and without a human face.

But in those 882 journalists who have lost their lives, four of them were colleagues and friends.

Today UNESCO launches it’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. A welcome move which should not be necessary but which sadly is.

'We need everyone to stand up to hold the line for press freedom and for freedom of expression,' UNESCO's Chief of Section of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists, Guilherme Canela told ITV News.

Many journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty to report across political divides are never in the headlines.

This year Shireen Abu Akleh, a celebrated and widely respected Palestinian-American correspondent for Al Jazeera was shot dead as she reported on clashes between Palestinian armed groups as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) carried out an operation in Jenin, in the Occupied West Bank.

She was wearing a protective vest which had the words “PRESS” written on it but she was killed when a bullet during an exchange of fire hit her.

It was unclear in the immediate aftermath whether she had been killed by a stray bullet by Palestinian groups or IDF soldiers, but following extensive investigations by all sides and by independent organisations, the Israel Defence Forces who had conducted their own in-depth investigation came forward and acknowledged the that there was “a high probability” that Shireen Abu Akleh had been “accidentally hit” by an Israeli bullet.

This was a rare case where both sides to a conflict, the US State Department and independent media organisations had made a concerted effort to get to the bottom of a journalist's death, and a state entity had acknowledged blame.

The vast majority of deaths of journalists do not receive such treatment. We need independent witnesses to global and local events.

They need to be protected to carry out that job.

UNESCO's new campaign video highlights that nine out of ten killings of journalists go unpunished

UNESCO’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists is vital if only it reminds us that without people willing to risk their lives to report - we are all the poorer for it, and after having reported from all over the world for many broadcasting organisations, I’m very proud, as International Affairs Editor of ITV News, that I can look back on the 23-year-old who went to Nigeria in 1992 and feel that we can still fight for every journalist, whoever they work for.

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