The past years have been among the deadliest for members of the media. In 2014, 61 journalists lost their lives while reporting from armed conflicts around the world.

Journalists covering conflicts — both international correspondents and local reporters — face grave threats and often risk their own lives to get information out. Their presence is all the more important at a time when information battles and propaganda accompany bombings, explosions and killing.

In 2014, Index on Censorship magazine looked at the new information war between Russia and Ukraine. While propaganda in times of war is nothing new, the amount of content produced and the speed with which it can be disseminated makes it hard to track all lies and expose all fake stories. As a result, disinformation can affect people both on and beyond the battlefield.

Index will be at the conference on journalists’ safety, media freedom and pluralism in times of conflict, hosted by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic. The conference will focus on:

• Best practices and the development of practical tools on issues of conflict and war reporting
• ​Journalists’ safety and journalism ethics
• Measures to deal with propaganda for war and hatred, and the information war
• Media regulation
• ​Confidence building measures among journalists from different parties to conflicts​