Do journalists need a special safety convention?

 

From a recent debate at the Frontline Club between Geoffrey Robertson QC, Knut Doerman (ICRC), Aidan White (IFJ) and moderated by Prof Stewart Purvis (City University). Aidan White expands on the subject on the IFJ blog,

There’s no better example of a country that fails to protect journalists than Russia itself which has an abysmal record of investigating the killings of reporters. In recent years Moscow has not found or prosecuted any of the killers of a dozen or so journalists who have died since Vladimir Putin came to power. Six months after the shocking assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalists are still waiting for some sign that her killers will be found. No-one is holding their breath. As someone wryly put it, every official investigation in Russia carries on until it comes successfully to a dead end… link