Reconsidering Journalist Safety Training

Safety training courses and manuals are designed to provide journalists with guidance to assess and mitigate risk. In this article, we ask whether content of such training and guidance is informed by actual threats and risks relevant to journalists working in the field. Departing from our own previous research about threats and dangers faced by journalists working in conflict zones or covering dangerous beats, and a review of the literature addressing the issue of safety manuals for journalists, we evaluate the content of five safety-training documents. Of these, two are descriptions of internationally-focused safety courses, two are safety manuals produced for a national audience, and one is a handbook focusing specifically on safety for women reporters in the Arab region. The purpose is to identify various aspects of safety addressed in training and manuals offered to locally and internationally-deployed journalists—and illuminate how they may differ in focus and approach. Through a comparison of the content of the selected manuals and course descriptions, we conclude that these trainings and manuals to some extent address specific variations in context, but that detailed attention towards gender differences in risk and other personal characteristics are not given equivalent weight. The international training focuses excessively on physical environment issues (such as those of a ‘hostile environment’), while the manuals with national or regional focus are practice-oriented and largely take a journalistic point of departure. We argue that training and manuals can benefit from considering both these aspects for risk assessment, but recommend that addressing journalistic practice and personal resources is fundamental to all journalist safety training since it is at the personal, practical, and media organisational levels that the mitigation encouraged by these trainings can happen

Framing the Covid-19 pandemic: A case study of the role of Norwegian public service broadcasting in times of crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused both a widespread public health crisis and a global economic crisis, disrupting every aspect of our lives, health, education, jobs, and social life. To provide the public with trustworthy and continuously updated information and stories during uncertain times, newsrooms have made pandemic coverage a priority. Conducting a content analysis of Norwegian news and debate programs on radio and television throughout 2020, we found that the frames most dominant in news broadcasts were the least used frames in debate programs, and vice versa. Overall, the five most common frames were societal consequences, economic consequences, medical risk, government measures, social behaviour, and risk. This suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic was contextualized as an economic and social crisis as well as a health crisis. However, the lack of politicization, conflict and responsibility frames, suggests media coverage missed a critical perspective.publishedVersio

Medium-specific threats for journalists: examples from Philippines, Afghanistan and Venezuela

Between 2012 and 2016, UNESCO registered 530 deaths ofjournalists. They also published a statistic showing that televisionjournalists were the most killed, followed by print media, radioand online journalists. Hinted in this statistics is the need tounderstand the relationship between the medium through whichand in which the journalists produce news and the threats anddangers posed to them. In this article, we discuss this interlinkageand call it medium-specific threats. As examples of thisinterlinkage, we describe the cases of community radio journalistsin the Philippines, photojournalists in Afghanistan and onlinejournalists in Venezuela. Based on these examples fromindependently conducted studies from very different parts of theworld, we make the broader case that while recognizing theprevailing political-economic and socio-cultural factors and forcesat work in these media systems-in-flux, investigations of medium-specific threats to journalists are needed for more nuancedunderstanding of and thus mitigation of journalists’insecurities

Kunnskapsgrunnlag om bevisstgjøringsstrategier som skal motvirke rekruttering av ubevisste innsidere i norske virksomheter

Formålet med dette kunnskapsgrunnlaget er å belyse temaet bevisstgjøringsstrategier knyttet til informasjonssikkerhet og innsiderrisiko. På bakgrunn av en gjennomgang av eksisterende relevant forskningslitteratur innen sosialpsykologi, sikkerhetskultur og informasjonssikkerhet, fremstiller kunnskapsgrunnlaget noen modeller, konsepter og teorier knyttet til utfordringene med informasjonssikkerhet og innsiderrisiko. Videre fremlegges en diskusjon av ulike strategier og elementer i disse, samt anbefalinger for hva som kan være viktig å hensynta i arbeid med bevisstgjøring for den aktuelle problemstillingen. ISBN: 978-82-14-07977-7publishedVersio

Covering Mindanao: The Safety of Local vs. Non-local Journalists in the Field

In this study, I examine the perilous conditions facing Filipino journalists covering the Mindanao region, focusing on differences in threats and dangers faced by those who are local to the region and those parachuting in from Manila. Using a qualitative approach, I have conducted one group interview with two local and two non-local journalists, and five in-depth one-to-one interviews with journalists and expert sources, in 2017. The study additionally draws on interviews with fourteen Filipino journalists and editors from 2014. The journalists perceive that safety differ depending on whether they are local to the conflict they cover or not. Safety issues are significant for the ways in which they operate in the field and decisions they make. Extra-judicial killings and impunity for perpetrators committing crimes against journalists perpetuate dangerous conditions particularly for local journalists, while kidnapping for ransom is among the greatest threats perceived by non-local journalists. In situations which non-local journalists can retreat, their local counterparts stay behind and face reprisals. Ethics is imperative to safety particularly for local journalists. Safety training should be tailored to and differentiate between security challenges. Collaboration between local and non-local journalists may improve their safety altogether, but media organisations must adequately compensate both

Sexual Violence against Journalists in Conflict Zones - Gendered Practices and Cultures in the Newsroom

While sexual violence is a threat to both men and women in war and conflict, cases con- cerning male victims are largely absent from public discussion and women’s vulnerability regularly assumed. This paper suggests that procedures for journalist safety are influenced by a male-aggressor/female-victim paradigm, underestimating the vulnerability of male colleagues and discriminating against women

Journalism under pressure in conflict zones: A study of journalists and editors in seven countries

Through interviews with 100 journalists and editors in seven countries, the authors examine safety as the main challenge for journalists covering war and conflict in both local and international contexts. The article places a particular focus on the situation for Filipino and Norwegian journalists. The underreporting of legal aspects of international conflict, combined with less security, means less presence and more journalistic coverage based on second-hand observation. The article argues that reduced access to conflict hotspots owing to the tactical targeting of journalists might distort the coverage of wars and conflicts, and affect the quality of journalism in future

Framing of the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of Norwegian broadcasting news- and debate programs

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused both a widespread public health crisis and a global economic crisis, disrupting every aspect of our lives, health, education, jobs, and social life. To provide the public with trustworthy and continuously updated information and stories during uncertain times, newsrooms have made pandemic coverage a priority. Conducting a content analysis of Norwegian news and debate programs on radio and television throughout 2020, we found that the frames most dominant in news broadcasts were the least used frames in debate programs, and vice versa. Overall, the five most common frames were societal consequences, economic consequences, medical risk, government measures, social behaviour, and risk. This suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic was contextualized as an economic and social crisis as well as a health crisis. However, the lack of politicization, conflict and responsibility frames, suggests media coverage missed a critical perspective. &nbsp

Reduced Security for Journalists an Less Reporting from the Frontline

According to both UNESCO and NGOs working to protect the safety of journal- ists, the security situation for reporters and media workers in conflict zones has deteriorated greatly during the past decade. The present authors have under - taken a combined method of survey and in-depth interviews with one hun - dred journalists and editors in the field of war and conflict reporting in seven countries to discover whether, and how, they perceive the recent increase in threats and attacks against journalists at work in conflict zones. The study aims in particular to focus on the consequences such environmental security con - straints have for the journalistic output in general, and sets out to map in detail editors’ and journalists’ security routines prior to fieldwork and the aftereffects suffered from attacks

Medium-specific threats for journalists: Examples from Philippines, Afghanistan and Venezuela

Between 2012 and 2016, UNESCO registered 530 deaths of journalists. They also published a statistic showing that television journalists were the most killed, followed by print media, radio and online journalists. Hinted in this statistics is the need to understand the relationship between the medium through which and in which the journalists produce news and the threats and dangers posed to them. In this article, we discuss this interlinkage and call it medium-specific threats. As examples of this interlinkage, we describe the cases of community radio journalists in the Philippines, photojournalists in Afghanistan and online journalists in Venezuela. Based on these examples from independently conducted studies from very different parts of the world, we make the broader case that while recognizing the prevailing political-economic and socio-cultural factors and forces at work in these media systems-in-flux, investigations of medium-specific threats to journalists are needed for more nuanced understanding of and thus mitigation of journalists’ insecurities