I know that attacking reporters is considered a war crime, and i have huge respect for those who do it to give the world an understanding of events, but it just seems insanely dangerous.
What are the steps taken to protect reporters in areas of conflict? Or do they primarily use footage taken from civilians in the areas and just speak over it from a safe location?
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Reporters try to clearly identify themselves as reporters so that enemy combatants know they are “off limits” and should not be harmed. They also work with friendly forces on the ground to stay in safe(r) areas that keep them out of actively hot areas.
That said, it **is** insanely dangerous. Reporters can be harmed if they are reporting from active war zones. In the last decade, about 350 journalists have been killed this way.
They aren’t safe. Reporting from conflict areas is *very* dangerous.
The best they can do is make it clear that they are neutral reporters, and even then they’re crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.
They are not.
They’re pretty much just brave individuals that venture into conflict zones to cover the fighting with little more protection than a flack jacket with “PRESS” stencilled on and an armoured helmet and due the the ever changing situation on the ground often pay the ultimate price.
I believe there’s been around 20 journalists killed in the Ukrainian conflict and already reports of 3 killed in Gaza.
Others have explained the danger, but you have to remember, terrorists and warlords like PR too, a good example is the attempted shoot down of flight OO-DLL in 2003 where the militants brought reporters along to watch and film them shooting down a civilian airplane. They hit the plane, badly damaging it, but it managed to land safely.
There’s a very entertaining, autobiographical book on the subject by Chris Ayers called “War Reporting for Cowards”
To add on to what has been said, many journalists with major orgs take “hazardous environment training” which can cover driving in a warzone, treating war injuries, how to survive a hostage situation, etc. The trainings as I’ve seen them start at 3,000 USD, at least in the US, so sadly many freelancers go without this important training.
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