THE PROTECTION OF JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA OBJECTS IN INTERNATIONAL ARMED CONFLICT

Nowadays, along with the developments in technology and communication, international armed conflicts are transmitted to the public through live broadcasts from the conflict zone. This is achieved through journalists working in that region. However, journalists can be the target of attacks when they are carrying out this difficult task. For this reason, the protection of journalists and media tools in the armed conflict area is important. Two types of journalists work in the armed conflict areas: war correspondents and journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions. War correspondents, in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, regulated only in terms of injury, illness, casualties and captivity. It is foreseen that these people will be given prisoner of war status when they are captured. No arrangement has been made in the Geneva Conventions with regard to the task that journalists are performing. In Additional Protocol I of 1977, journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions were considered civilian unless they were directly involved in the conflict. Today, however, it is argued that these regulations are inadequate due to the changing conditions of conflict. Accordingly, the protection of journalists in international armed conflict are discussed through either the different interpretations of existing regulations or the definitions of new journalists. The humanitarian law in force, as a rule, accepts media instruments as civil property. Increasingly diversified, along with evolving communication technology, the issue of protecting media tools has been updated. In the present work, the protection of journalists and media objects in terms of humanitarian law will be addressed regarding the existing regulations, contents and new definitions, opinions and recommendations