The high-profile and horrific deaths of James Foley and Steven Sotloff–both freelancers–last year has led several news organizations, including the Associated Press and Reuters, to push for industry-wide guidelines on the safety of journalists. Those guidelines will be announced tonight in response to the dramatic threat to journalists–freelance and staff–from groups like ISIS.
“An unprecedented coalition of leading news companies, freelance journalism organizations and press-freedom advocates (are) responding to this crisis by launching global safety principles and practices for international news organizations and the freelancers who work with them,” reads a statement from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia.
The safety guidelines will be revealed tonight at the Columbia Journalism School.