The head of the International Red Cross was blunt and unequivocal: killing a journalist during a conflict is a war crime.
“An attack against a journalist is a war crime because it is an attack on a civilian,” Yves Daccord told the World Media Summit.
Mr Daccord was part of a panel examining the dangers faced by media workers across the world.
“It is a war crime when you are attacked by a government... and people need to be aware of that.”
The panel provided some horrifying statistics.
It was claimed about 2700 journalists had been killed in the past 25 years.
“How would the world react if 2700 doctors or 2700 teachers were killed while doing their jobs?” asked the president of the International Federation of Journalists, Jim Boumelha.
Related reading
Peter Greste named Human Rights award winner
Two thirds of those killed were actually murdered, and 88 per cent of those were unresolved.
“They are not just being killed,” said Giles Trendle from Al Jazeera.
“They are being assassinated.”
Jailed in Ethiopia
Swedish journalist Martin Schibbye could perhaps be considered one of the lucky ones. He survived.
The editor-in-chief of the Blank Spot Project was arrested in Ethiopia while covering a story on the oil industry.
He was accused of being a terrorist and sentenced to 11 years in the notorious Kaliti prison.
He was forced into mock executions and spent 438 days in a room with 300 other prisoners before being pardoned.
Because he wrote a book about his experiences, it was determined he had broken the terms of his pardon.
He could be returned to prison if he entered a country with an extradition treaty with Ethiopia.
“Once a month, a prisoner left with his feet first,” Mr Schibbye said.
“An attack against a journalist is a war crime because it is an attack on a civilian.”
He called for loud public campaigns whenever a journalist was arrested, similar to the successful #FreeAJStaff and #JournalismIsNotACrime campaigns following the jailing of Al Jazeera staff in Egypt, including Australian correspondent Peter Greste.
“They can jail journalists but they cannot jail journalism,” he said.
“An attack on one is an attack on us all.
“Every time a journalist is jailed, the world should go bananas.”
Jim Boumelha quoted the former head of CNN, Chris Cramer, who once remarked it had become “open season” on journalists.
“Unfortunately, the season has never closed,” Mr Boumelha said.
The World Media Summit is coinciding with the International Press Institute’s world congress.
The IPI has prepared an international declaration on the protection of journalists and wants media organisations and the United Nations to ratify it.
The declaration demands states fulfil their obligations to “promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all”.
