Covering Environment the 'Front Line of a New War,' Says Reporters Without Borders

By: E&P Staff Journalists who specialize in covering environmental issues "are on the front line of a new war," risking physical attacks and even death from corrupt corporations and organized crime, according to the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

In a report titled "The dangers for journalists who expose environmental issues," Paris-based RSF looks at 13 cases of journalists or bloggers who have been killed, physically attacked, jailed, threatened or censored for their reporting on the environment.

The report also points to what RSF calls "the indifference and even complicity of some governments and authorities that make little attempt to protect journalists who take risks to investigate attacks on the environment."

Journalists run the most risk in countries such as Russia, Cambodia, Brazil and Bulgaria, the group said.

"Their work poses a threat to many companies, organized crime groups and even governments that profit from misuse of the environment," RSF said. "These journalists are regarded as undesired witnesses and sometimes as enemies to be physically eliminated."

Calling environmental journalists "the guardians of our planet," RSF has published a book to support them entitled "Nature: 100 Photos for Press Freedom." The famed primatologist Jane Goodall wrote the introduction. The book is available through Reporters Without Border's English-language Web site, here.