The ABU News Group has approved news safety guidelines designed to help ensure the safety of journalists in the course of their work.
The guidelines call for news organisations to put safety above all other considerations for news crews working in any environment.
They were drawn up by members of Asiavision, the ABU's daily news exchange, at a meeting in Malaysia in March and approved by the News Group yesterday at its annual meeting in Kathmandu.
The guidelines call for training on safety and risk awareness to be conducted for all members of staff who work in hostile environments, and for news organisations to provide written guidance on the safety of their news crews.
Among other things, they urge news organisations to provide ongoing information to news crews about the security situation in the area they are sent to, and say that governments and security forces should respect the safety of journalists at all times.
They also encourage news organisations to put competitive issues aside when a situation arises in which people working for another news organisation need emergency assistance.
The News Group, which oversees all ABU news activities, also decided to set up a task group to look at its future direction and at ways of improving Asiavision.
NHK-Japan, MCOT-Thailand and CCTV-China were named as winners of the Asiavision Annual Awards for 2011 for their contributions to the news exchange.
(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)
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