JOURNALISTS covering foreign conflicts need to know about humanitarian laws that are applicable globally to enable better reporting and to protect themselves.
“As more Malaysian journalists are now being sent to cover conflicts in foreign countries, it is important for them to be aware of International Humanitarian Law (IHL),” Asian Center for Media Studies executive director Datuk Ng Poh Tip said in her welcome address during an IHL Workshop for Media Professionals organised by the centre and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last month at Menara Star.
ICRC regional programme manager Firoza Burhanudeen said the media could raise vital awareness of armed conflicts and also highlight forgotten conflicts and hidden stories, or report on a looming crisis.
IHL forms a major part of public international law and comprises the rules which, in times of armed conflict, seek to protect people who are not, or no longer, taking part in the hostilities, and to restrict the methods and means of warfare employed.
Professor Harry Roque from the University of the Philippines Law Centre, who was a counsel for the International Criminal Court of the Hague and the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda said it could be difficult to implement the IHL, as traditional conflicts had changed today especially in the area of counter-terrorism.
“There is always a question of who has the actual power to subject the leader of a country, especially in a country like the United States of America, to an international tribunal of the IHL.
“I believe the IHL has to expand its coverage to allow the opportunity for us to engage more of the people involved during armed conflicts and especially the type of conflicts in recent times,” he said.
“However, the media still plays a vital role in exposing violations of the IHL and disseminating news, as states do not admit they have breached international laws.”
The IHL is applicable when there is an armed conflict (international or non-international) that is intense and sustained.
Combatants must also be carrying arms and clearly distinguished from civilians, both criteria that are hard to define for terrorism today.
“As such, we have seen how former American president George Bush argued that the IHL is not applicable to the detention of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, although the very act of detaining them in an isolated area already constitutes a violation of the international Geneva Convention,” said Prof Roque.
The ICRC head of training programme for media professionals Kinga Déry said the IHL rule was sufficient, as the laws for human rights and domestic laws complemented it.
“There are certain fundamental laws and rights that still apply in any field,” she said. “International law depends very much on states to observe and to apply it.
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