 Aidan White
I want to say thanks very much for the invitation and I will just say a couple of words. This meeting is really very important, it's a kick-off meeting, and I hope it's a start for a process that will intensify and reach out right into the network of journalists organizations in the world.
Because it's reaching into an area where that I think we in journalism are going to face a real challenge in these difficult days.
Which is about reporting on conflict, understanding conflict in the context of is happening in the world and really identifying the stories that actually are not being told. In a couple of days time we'll be releasing this report which is the annual report of the killings of journalists.
And under although each statistic is important, and behind each is a terrible personal tragedy. And although last year we saw a reduction in the number of journalists targeted and killed. In the first days of 2009 the rate of killing of journalists has been as high as ever.
I think the issues that you're going to talk about are to do with the quality of journalism and an understanding how conflict is reported and who are the victims of conflict. It fits very much into the IFJ general concern about the question of the role of women in journalism and covering conflict – and also the need to pay greater attention to the question of women as victims of conflict. The fact is that journalists and journalism as a whole are not sensitive enough to the question of reporting conflict the question of women as victims of conflict. Which led us, the IFJ, last year, at the end of last year, to coincide with the United Nations' day on the action to combat and eliminate the violence against women to issue guidelines for media and journalists in how to (cover) these events. I think one of the issues that we really want to develop and support in this initiative is to bring more women journalists, more media practitioners to the table to discuss in detail how we improve the quality of coverage in journalism. And that couldn't come at a more difficult time because the whole world of journalism is in a stage of flux and change and it's a great debate about the future of journalism. And if journalism has any future that is worthwhile at all – it has to be based on quality information. That's why we've given in our campaigning works special emphasis to the ethical journalism, the question of quality in journalism, the question of the need for professionalism in journalism. And so therefore I think that the work that you're doing is going to be a very important part of that feature in the book.
The IFJ gender programs are expanding, I'm happy to say. So I hope that what you're doing today and the results of your conversation today – which I hope we're going to point in the right direction – how we can construct much more effective network – much more organic network – not just among women journalists but groups from various parts of the world, how can work better together and more effectively together. So – wish you well in your discussion. I congratulate the Russian Union of Journalists for taking this initiative. And I assure you that the IFJ will follow-up your conclusions and we'll try to make sure that absolutely everything you identify as things that need to be done I'll put into the mainstream of our working program. |
