ЗАШТИТА НОВИНАРА У МЕЂУНАРОДНОМ ПРАВУ
The Protection Of Journalists In International Law

Summary/Abstract: Every year, a large number of journalists are killed or injured in line of professional duty or on account of the results of their investigative journalism, particularly in the course of armed conflicts. Unfortunately, there is no single document in international law which would embody specific rules on the protection of journalists. Instead, the protection of journalists in international law is exercised on the basis of general rules contained in human rights treaties and special provisions of international humanitarian law. In the past period, there have been several attempts to adopt a special treaty on the protection of journalists engaged in dangerous missions. The first efforts came from some professional journalists’ associations at the end of the 1960s but the proposed drafts did not obtain necessary state support. Given the frequency of casualties involving journalists, the United Nations also engaged in improving the international protection of journalists. The UN General Assembly requested from the Human Rights Commission to draft a convention providing for the protection of journalists on dangerous missions. In 1971, the Human Rights Commission adopted a preliminary draft of an international convention and the next year it produced the Draft Articles of the International Convention on the Protection of Journalists Engaged in Dangerous Professional Missions in Areas of Armed Conflict. Unfortunately, neither of the proposed legal texts has been officially adopted by the General Assembly to the present day. For the lack of a special treaty governing this issue, the protection of journalists is nowadays based on the rules of international law which are contained in human rights treaties and international humanitarian law. Although they do not contain specific legal provisions on the protection of journalists, human rights treaties contain some fundamental human rights which are valuable for the protection of journalists, such as: the right to life, the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment or punishment, the freedom of expression and the freedom of movement. Some of these rights provide for their physical protection while others enable the exercise of their professional activities. Unlike human rights treaties, international humanitarian law does contain special provisions on the protection of journalists. International humanitarian law distinguishes between accredited war correspondents and “independent” (free-lance) journalists. Both categories of journalists are regarded as civilians but war correspondents are given the status of prisoners of war in case they are captured by enemy. As all other civilians, journalists lose their protection if they take a direct participation in hostilities.

• Details
• Contents