GENEVA - Seven countries including the United States and Britain have joined in a new move to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones, the International Red Cross said.
France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Denmark also committed themselves to accept a new nonbinding accord on protecting correspondents in line with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare, Carla Haddad, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said Friday.
Media rights campaigners cautiously welcomed the pledge at a meeting of the 194 signatories of the Geneva Conventions, but said its effectiveness would be measured by what the countries did in practice.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversees compliance with the conventions, proposed the pledge as a way of strengthening protection of journalists, whose rights are already guaranteed in sections of the 1949 treaty on the rules of war.
Under the pledge, countries promise to educate their soldiers and security forces in international humanitarian law. The agreement also asks them to preserve media independence and act against those who seriously violate the rights of journalists.
Each country submitted a statement of its pledge. According to those posted on the conference Web site, France, the United States, Denmark and Britain spelled out their intention to protect journalists, and Germany said it planned to organize a conference to that end. But Canada and Australia only spoke generally about protecting humanitarian workers.
John Bellinger III, the State Department's legal adviser, said, "The United States is absolutely committed to protection of journalists in conflict zones."
But Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said "Our primary concern is that these legal principles are not respected in practice."
He said research by the New-York based group found that U.S. military forces have been responsible for the deaths of 16 journalists in Iraq.
"While we have not found any of these incidents to be deliberate attacks on the press, none have been fully investigated," Simon said.
In April, a Spanish judge indicted three U.S. soldiers in the 2003 death of a Spanish journalist who was killed when their tank opened fire on a hotel in Baghdad.
The United States has refused to extradite the soldiers to Spain to stand trial, saying a U.S. review of the incident found the use of force justified.
Officials at the State Department refused to comment Thursday on whether the pledge would affect Washington's handling of the case.
Other media rights campaigners lamented that so few of the 194 signatories to the Geneva Conventions have taken the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to protecting journalists.
"There seems to be an unfortunate reluctance among a great many countries that really could well make this pledge to do so," said George Gordon-Lennox of the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders.
Thus far this year, at least 60 journalists have been killed on the job, compared with 56 during all of last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The group said that after Iraq, the deadliest countries for journalists are Algeria, Russia, Colombia and the Philippines.
