Journalists are now calling for the amendment of international laws which will see to it that any killing or holding hostage of any journalist should be treated as a war crime.
According to the president and CEO of The Associated Press (AP), Gary Pruitt, this initiative to call for the changes will see to it that journalists shall be protected as they go about their day to day duties in covering stories which involve war conflicts.
These stories often put the lives of members of the Fourth Estate at risk since they are increasingly seen as targets by extremist groups.
This comes at a time when the alarming number of journalists who have lost their lives in their line of duty has made headlines though receiving the least concern even from law makers.
The press is now a target of most terrorists. Some terrorists even refer to them as spies.
Earlier this year, the Al Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 12 people at France’s Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, among them being journalists.
Reports revealed that two terrorist identified as Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed into its newsroom and gunned down journalists.
In 2014, four of AP’s cooperative journalists were killed on assignment among the global 63 journalists who were reportedly killed in the line of duty. More than 1,000 journalists have died while at work since 1992, according to a report by Committee to Protect Journalists.
Pruitt said existing international laws should be updated to protect journalists. He further proposed creating a new protocol to the Geneva Conventions to make the killing of a journalist a specific war crime.
In as much as these laws could be implemented, these measures would not necessarily prevent journalists from getting killed. However, it is time that the measures should be put in place for journalists just like for other professionals.
The rising trend of terrorist and extremist groups resorting to kidnapping and ransoming journalists to raise money or spread their propaganda has poised quite a challenge to members of the Fourth Estate.
Moreover, these groups are also increasingly killing journalists to get attention.
