General Assembly Resolution #554 “Safety and Integrity in Conflict Journalism” (Category: Education and Creativity; Area of Effect: Free Press) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.
The General Assembly,
Respecting the intent of GAR#554 “Safety and Integrity in Conflict Journalism” to protect journalists operating in conflict zones, but
Disappointed that the resolution contains several significant and easily exploitable loopholes, and in some cases blocks further legislation to resolve these issues, rendering it inadequate for continued enforcement by this august body,
Highlighting the loopholes present due to the substandard and flawed definition of a “conflict journalist”, which:
- by requiring that conflict journalists be “employed in providing journalism”, can easily be interpreted as excluding journalists that do not engage in journalism due to an employment contract (for example, freelance or citizen journalists), and
- includes the hazy requirement that a conflict journalist must “[operate] independent of any belligerent faction”, which is so vague that member-states can easily claim that journalists nominally dependent on a belligerent faction, such as non-government news organisations headquartered in a belligerent nation during an international war, are exempt from the protections in the resolution,
Frustrated by the inadequate definition of an “act of espionage” in Clause 1c which, by requiring that a “belligerent faction” benefit from the act to be counted as an "act of espionage", excludes acts that should be considered espionage but where third parties, rather than "belligerents", benefit from said acts,
Alarmed that by legalising “any journalism” that is not considered an “act of espionage”, Clause 2b blocks future legislation, whether national, international or within this institution, to further regulate espionage that does not fit into the poor definition present in Clause 1c,
Bothered by Clause 3’s lack of protection for conflict journalists from groups other than member-states, such as armed civilians, allowing acts prohibited in Clause 3 for member-states to be perpetrated by entities that are not member-states, thus undermining the intent of Clause 3,
Troubled by the fact that while the regulations within Clause 4 restrict the “kidnapping, murder, or deliberate use of a conflict journalist as a military target”, there are no protections against the detainment, harassment, physical harm or attack of conflict journalists by non-state or non-military entities as long as this does not result in the "kidnapping [or] murder" of said journalists, thereby allowing for the legal abuse of conflict journalists, and
Concluding that, while the intent of GAR#554 is meritorious and a topic undoubtedly deserving of attention by this institution, it contains several issues and loopholes that make it too poor to remain in force,
Hereby Repeals GAR#554 “Safety and Integrity in Conflict Journalism”.
