Safety Guidelines For Journalists On Duties Out This Month

PETALING JAYA, Dec 13 (Bernama) -- The guidelines on health and safety aspects for journalists on duty in high-risk areas in and outside Malaysia will be out at the end of this month. Human Resources Minister Dr S.Subramaniam said discussions on the guidelines with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) were in the final stage. "The guidelines take into consideration the safety of journalists and the condition of the areas of coverage while on duty, among others, the details of which will be announced later," he said after delivering his keynote address at a function with the Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM), here, Tuesday. Also present were MBAM president Kwan Foh Kwai and director-general of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh) Dr Johari Basri. Dr Subramaniam said the guidelines were the government's effort to prevent a repeat of the incident in which BernamaTV cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, 39, was killed while covering a humanitarian mission in Mogadishu, on Sept 2 this year. Noramfaizul, was killed by a sniper gunshot during the mission organised by the 1Malaysia Putera Club to help the people of Somalia who were facing famine due to the long drought. On accidents at the workplace, Dr Subramaniam said up to October this year, 50,157 cases were reported to the Social Security Organisation (Socso). He said out of this number, about nine per cent involved workers in the construction industry while 30 per cent involved accidents while going to and from work. -- BERNAMA