Rodney Pinder

Rodney Pinder is Director of the International News Safety Institute, a Brussels-based organisation dedicated to the safety of journalists and other news media personnel working in areas of danger of all kinds.

The non-governmental, independent institute was created in 2003 by news organisations and support groups out of growing concern over a rising incidence of attacks on journalists. More than 1,200 news media workers - journalists and critical support staff -- have died in the line of duty in the past decade.

INSI is an unprecedented coalition of the news media and individual journalists, media freedom groups, journalist unions and humanitarian campaigners working to create a culture of safety in news gathering.

INSI, a non-profit organisation, operates as a network for safety information that will be of help to journalists in the field, with its website www.newssafety.com  as its hub.

The institute raises funds from international donors to provide basic safety training free of charge for journalists and other news professionals around the world who are unable to afford their own. It has so far trained almost 1,000 news media staff and freelances in 16 countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Amongst other initiatives, INSI undertook a global inquiry, the first of its kind, into the causes of journalist deaths and produced a report and recommendations for action by governments and the international community. The survey disclosed most casualties were not war correspondents but ordinary reporters trying to expose crime and corruption in their own countries in peacetime.

It also worked with members to persuade the UN Security Council to pass Resolution 1738 on the safety of journalists in conflict.

And INSI has set up a kidnap/hostage network to help news organisations and individuals facing such a crisis for the first time.

Pinder, 64, is a former senior foreign correspondent and news executive for Reuters. He retired in 2002 after four years as global Editor of Reuters Television News and 37 years covering international affairs in three hemispheres.

He has a long experience of conflict reporting. He has covered wars and civil conflicts in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Southern and South Africa, Indonesia, Iraq and Iran and the Gulf.