From Vaughan Smith of the Frontline Club,
Dear Colleague,
I am convinced that there is an exciting opportunity, post embed-free Libya, for a practitioner-led initiative to move the industry forward on news safety.
So in April this year the Frontline Club is hosting workshops, bringing news management, leading practitioners and experienced freelances together to discuss the issues.
I don't think better news safety needs to increase costs, quite the reverse. By working together we can save funds by more clearly defining duty of care responsibilities and better aligning safe practice with efficient acquisition.
I believe we can develop industry standards on safety courses and perhaps build a safety kite-mark for freelances and even a competitive insurance scheme for them. It is also my view that freelance interests have suffered in the past for lack of representation. Opinions on these matters outside the mainstream are broad and no freelance can confidently speak for another.
I am taking a first step to address this by using the data from the survey (see link below) to inform the debate on safety. The results will be published but not the names of any contributors.
You would help greatly by completing this survey, which should take less than 10 minutes and I would appreciate if you would forward it to others who you think should complete it. I will email participants the results.
Please complete the survery here and feel free to contact me outside the survey on vaughan.smith@frontlineclub.com.
This survey is aimed at FREELANCE camera operators, video journalists, photographers, stringers and other independents anywhere in the world that take physical risks for their journalism.