Remedies and methods of protecting journalists in international humanitarian law

In this article the author analyzes the acts of international humanitarian law pertaining to the protection of journalists performing their professional duties under the conditions of armed conflicts. It is telling that international humanitarian law provides significantly fewer guarantees of protection for journalists in the course of a non-international armed conflict, which is due to the problem of the defense of the state sovereignty. The lack of the clear criteria for the identification of a non-international armed conflict, minimum guarantees of the rights of mass media professionals in such circumstances allow the parties to manipulate the status of the situation and to set fewer guarantees than those provided for international conflicts. The assessment of the statistical data indicates a significant violation of the rights of journalists in the countries where there are non-international armed conflicts. On the basis of the statistical data the author draws a conclusion on the low effectiveness of the existing law and the need to continue the work on the improvement of legal norms, and remedies and methods of protection of journalists performing their professional duties. Methods: the methodological basis of the article is formed by a set of scientific methods such as the method of analysis and synthesis as the main methods, the method of interpretation of law and formal legal method. Results: the study has proved that in all justification of the division of armed conflicts into international and non-international ones, this approach complicates the practical application of the legal rules, does not allow to provide journalists with an equal extent of guarantees, and does not meet the modern world realities not to differentiate different types of conflicts. Conclusions: as a result of the study the author has proposed extending the domain of international humanitarian law to the situation of intense internal armed conflicts, to enshrine in legislation th e compulsory guaranteed minimum of rights of journalists performing their duties in armed conflicts, regardless of their type, and to create a post of Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the safety of journalists.