Model course on safety of journalists

This Model Course on safety of journalists is a significant instalment in UNESCO's Series on Journalism Education. Developed in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the publication responds to the difficult situation of many journalists working in the Arab States region. Reflecting the vulnerability of such journalists, the Director-General’s 2016 Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity records that this region registered the highest number of journalists’ killings – 78 deaths in all – in 2014-2015.

The publication comes in the context of the universal call for protecting journalistic safety. 

Governments have the primary responsibility to put in place effective measures to protect against attacks aimed at silencing those exercising their right to freedom of expression. But journalists, media owners, researchers, journalism teachers and students also have very important roles to play. 

This publication thus encourages journalism education institutions to develop curricula relevant to the safety of journalists and impunity. 

It builds upon the UNESCO Model Curricula for Journalism Education developed in 2007 as well as on subsequent updates in 2013 and 2015 that respond to particular emerging issues, including those relating to digital safety for journalists, gender, human trafficking, among others.