The five-day workshop closed on June 22 at the Xinhua News Agency headquarters, Beijing.

“Journalism has become a very dangerous profession.” This was uttered by the Executive Chairman of the World Media Summit (WMS) and President of the Xinhua News Agency, Li Congjun, on Friday June 22^nd at the end of a five-day global training on reporters’ safety that held in Xinhua’s entertainment facility in Beijing, China.

Li Congjun told the over 50 journalists from mainstream news organisations in over 30 countries that the training programme was conceived by the secretariat of WMS after noticing that reporters were exposed to much danger while working in hostile situations. He promised the support of the World Media Summit and Xinhua News Agency for reporters facing difficulty in the performance of their duty anywhere in the world.

The training had seven lectures by experienced journalists from media institutions such as the Kyodo News Agency, Al Jazeera, New York Times and the Union of Journalists of Moscow. After receiving real life accounts of field experiences, the reporters were given tips on how to survive and report efficiently through difficult travelling conditions, disease-prone areas, demonstrations, bomb attacks, kidnappings and wars.

Footage and press clips of nuclear disasters as well as natural disasters caused by hurricanes, cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, amongst others, gave the reporters a feel of the dangers they could be exposed to and ideas on how to cover such happenings with less risks. Some of the participants from conflict areas like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Libya actually spiced the exchange with personal experiences. “I was the first to report on Colonel Gadhafi’s death in the media,” revealed Ibrahim Hadeia Magbri from the Quryna newspaper of Libya.

The take-home for most of the participants was the recommendation to be equipped with, among others, satellite telephones, Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, bullet-proof jackets, adapted equipment, First Aid sacks as well as drag bags comprising basic toiletries and conserved food for movement when necessary. The reporters left for their respective countries full not only of lessons learnt, but of beautiful pictures from the Palace Museum popularly called “The Forbidden City” and the China Great Wall.

The global training programme on reporters’ safety held just a few weeks to the opening of the second World Media Summit scheduled from July 4^th to 7^th in Moscow, Russia.