The Red Cross and the UK Foreign Office launched a campaign this week looking at the Geneva Conventions some 60 years on. Of particular interest to Frontline Club members and blog readers is the question of how to protect of journalists,

It is important that the media are able to report the true picture of a conflict situation.  But this often involves journalists putting themselves in dangerous situations.

The Geneva Conventions already clearly define the protection journalists are entitled to in their capacity as civilians within the conflict. This was re-emphasised in the First Additional Protocol of 1977.

But how can we ensure that journalists are protected? link

Photo: Protest against abduction and assault of journalist Keith Noyahr taken by Free Media Movement.

"I have been sick for months. Unless my government, the people of Canada, all my family and friends can get one million dollars, I will die here, OK that is certain," Lindhout said, sounding very distressed…

"The situation here is very dire and very serious. I?ve been a hostage for nine months, the conditions are very bad, I don?t drink clean water, I am fed at most once a day," Lindhout said.

"I’m being kept… in a dark windowless room, completely alone," she added.

"I love my country and I want to return so I beg my government to come to my aid. Likewise, I ask all my fellow Canadian citizens and my family to contribute in any way possible in order to help me finally be released from Somalia and be able to return home," said Lindhout. link

AFP says the phone call was made through an intermediary after weeks of negotiation. Nigel Brennan said he has been held in shackles for the past four months,

"I’ve been shackled for the last four months… My health is extremely poor and deteriorating rapidly due to extreme fever," he said.

"I implore that my government help me as a citizen of Australia (inaudible)… I ask for the help of my family in every way possible so that the ransom can be paid for my release," Brennan said.

"I love my country very much, I love my family, my girlfriend," he added. link

This is the first reported communication with the duo since they were kidnapped near Mogadishu in August, 2008.

He was killed as he was crossing the road at Wardhigley police station, according to Director of Radio Shabelle Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe. Abdirisak was on his way to Radio Shabelle when bullets hit him at the chest. His body was laying on the road for about 45 minutes as the militias was shooting every one that wanted to take his body.  In June 2008, Abdirisak Warsameh Mohamed was one of 48 Somali journalists that received safety training in Djibouti from NUSOJ and the International News Safety Institute (INSI). link

The editor at Radio Shabelle confirmed the death of Abdirisak to the AFP,

The editor of Radio Shabelle said one of its journalists was killed as he tried to flee the fighting.

“His relatives have confirmed to us that he was crossing a road to escape the fighting when he was caught in the crossfire. He died instantly,” said Abdirahman Yusuf. link

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists puts together a list of the 10 worst countries to be a blogger. Visit their site to find out more about the 10 countries and the justification for inclusion. The list, in order, is below and Burma comes out worst. Click each country below to learn more about individual cases of bloggers being arrested, harrassed or killed in each place,

1. Burma

2. Iran

3. Syria

4. Cuba

5. Saudi Arabia

6. Vietnam

7. Tunisia

8. China

9. Turkmenistan

10. Egypt

There’s also a short audio chat with CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney on CpJ.org about the thinking behind the 10 worst countries list.

Photograph of Hossein Derakhshan, blogger arrested in Iran in November 2008, taken by Joi

They live in fear. A dozen have been assassinated. Such is the fate of journalists trying to cover the war in the north of Sri Lanka. link

A report from CBC about journalists working in Sri Lanka. The sub-7 minute feature takes us inside the offices of The Sunday Leader, the newspaper Lasantha Wickrematunga edited until he was assasinated on the streets of Colombo on 8 January, 2009. Sri Lankan journalists reporting from both sides of the conflict face harassment, jail and death on a daily basis.

“Every individual Somali fights to stay himself, a person.” (Gerard Hanley in ‘Warriors’)
The atmosphere can change in a matter of seconds while working in Somalia.

Today we were traveling with a militia south of Mogadishu in part so that Philip could take some photos of a ‘technical’, the well-known battlewagon in Somalia popularized in the fighting of the 1990s.
All went well until we reached the limit of where the militia could operate and we stopped momentarily at the border to say goodbye before moving off to the next area on our own.

Mustafa, our fixer, said we should get out of the car and Philip takes a photo as we get out.
Small discussions break out around us. We have two guards in the car with us, but between militia soldiers and the border checkpoint soldiers there are perhaps 20 other men armed with anything from an AK-47 to the large Duska/Duskia anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of the technical.
Our own two militiamen get out of the car, shouting all the while.

To our right, two men raise their weapons both holding the barrels of each other’s gun. The soldier is tall and has his finger on the trigger of his half-metre long automatic weapon. Philip and I are a metre away, moving slowly back into the car. Our guard is confronting the border guards and all the militiamen have cocked their weapons against each other.
Now they’re lunging out, snatching each others’ weapons.

Our two guards are disarmed. Philip is telling me to get back into the car. I swing into the left-hand side at the back, keeping the door open with Philip to my right. The atmosphere is tremendously tense and everything is happening too quickly.
The right side of the car is now a whirl of movement, people repositioning themselves. I look for Mustafa and tell the driver we should leave. He stays.

Mustafa walks calmly round the back and gets in on the left side. Militiamen still arguing, with arms locked and outstretched in anger, our guards are handed back their AK47s through the right window.
We are slowly moving off but still we leave them mid-argument. Throughout the whole incident – which lasts perhaps three minutes, but feels a lot longer – I have no real idea what is going on or what the problem is.

One of our guards jumps on the outside frame on the right-hand side of our 4WD car and we pull out of the dusty square on the side of the road. Philip lights up a cigarette; I look at him, take a deep breath.
Turns out the soldiers at the border checkpoint assumed we had paid the militiamen to have the right to take photos. They were demanding money from us.
Another day. Another story.
[Photos from today viewable here.]