The Red Cross is trying to do something as journalists are killed in the line of duty, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
At the end of the new film about Veronica Guerin, a message appears on the screen to inform audiences that, in the six years after her death on June 26th, 1996, 189 other journalists around the world had also been killed in the line of duty.
That only brings us up to 2002. So far this year, a further 19 journalists have lost their lives in the course of their work, including 10 in the recent Iraq war. While all life is equally precious and every death a tragedy, the death of a journalist has particular implications going beyond the loss to the individual and his or her family and community.
Thomas Jefferson considered newspapers more important than government. The brutal killing of Veronica Guerin shook the foundations of this State because it was a stark and undeniable illustration of the arrogance of criminal elements who clearly felt they were so far above the law that they could gun down a public figure with impunity.
The killing of Sunday World reporter Martin O'Hagan outside his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in September 2001, was equally tragic and disturbing. Nobody has yet been charged with his murder.
Journalists are most at risk in war zones. Camera operators and photographers are especially vulnerable as it is virtually impossible to take pictures and take cover at the same time.
Two television cameramen died at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on April 8th, when a US tank fired a shell at the balcony where they stood. US Central Command later suggested that the tank was responding to enemy fire from the hotel lobby, but the cameramen were on the 15th floor! Earlier that day, the Baghdad bureau of the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera was hit by a US missile and one of the station's journalists, Tareq Ayyoub, was killed.
Journalists also get kidnapped, as in the case of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who disappeared in Pakistan and was later beheaded. They can also be arrested or injured in the course of an assignment.
A freelance photographer, Canadian-Iranian Zahra Kazemi, was arrested some weeks ago in Tehran while taking pictures at the city's Evin prison. The official news agency IRNA said she died in hospital last Friday after being transferred from police custody: the Iranian authorities claim she had a "brain stroke" but others believe she was mistreated while in detention.
While the world was distracted by the Iraq war, the Cuban government imprisoned 28 journalists for periods ranging from 14 to 27 years.
The journalist's occupation is becoming more hazardous. In light of this, the International Committee of the Red Cross has launched a 24-hour telephone "hotline" to provide assistance to journalists on dangerous assignments.
The Red Cross states that in addition to its appreciation of the work of journalists generally, "we recognise and value the help that the media give us in bringing the needs of vulnerable people to wider public attention". Indeed, without this support the Red Cross would face grave difficulties in carrying out its vital work "often in the same places where journalists incur most risk".
The Red Cross gets to places other organisations can't reach, which can be of vital importance where a journalist has been injured or arrested, sometimes both. If a journalist disappears in a war zone, for example, the Red Cross can use its authority and standing to seek information from the parties to the conflict or any other source.
Where a journalist is held in captivity or detention, the world body can request permission to send an ICRC delegate to visit the individual in question, accompanied by a doctor if necessary. In the happy event that the journalist is released, the Red Cross will repatriate him or her if no other means is available.
There are some constraints: in line with its policy of strict neutrality, the Red Cross does not request the release of persons who have been detained nor will it take part in "press campaigns or other public initiatives" on behalf of imprisoned journalists.
But the Red Cross believes that "in accordance with international humanitarian law, journalists engaged in assignments in areas of armed conflict must be respected and protected, as long as they do not take action adversely affecting their status as civilians".
Unfortunately there have been occasional instances where journalism was used as a cover for military or espionage activities by one side or the other in a conflict. There is a tendency, particularly evident in the Balkans conflict and sometimes seen nearer home in Northern Ireland, to regard journalists and the media generally as "the enemy".
There is a history of US hostility towards Al-Jazeera and many people still find it difficult to believe the attack on the station's Baghdad bureau was accidental.
There are other bodies which seek to protect and assist journalists on dangerous assignments, such as the International Federation of Journalists and the recently founded International News Safety Institute, both based in Brussels. Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders) is based in Paris and the Committee to Protect Journalists has its headquarters in New York.
The Red Cross hotline is a welcome addition to the modest protections and mechanisms that exist. In the unfortunate event that journalists or their families need to have recourse to it, the Geneva-based number is: 00-41-79-217-3285.
Copies of a booklet about the hotline as well as further information are available from Ms Aoife MacEoin, national communications officer of the Irish Red Cross (phone 01-676 5135).