The ACOS Annual Safety Coordination Meeting offers a unique opportunity for news organizations, NGOs, journalists and news editors to come together in person for a creative and candid cross-industry exchange about safety, with a focus on freelance and under-resourced journalists.
Our report summarizes the discussions and presentations that took place this year alongside key recommendations and takeaways. It will be shared across our community with the aim of advancing safety best practice through concrete, practical initiatives.
This year's meeting, which took place at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York, gathered 125 participants from 71 organizations and 27 countries, including freelancers and editors from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Kenya, Nicaragua and Ukraine.
The 2023 agenda paid particular attention to newsroom safety practices. Working sessions explored how different organizations are creating a cuture of safety within their newsrooms and how an increasing number of NGOs are providing support towards this goal.
The meeting also examined the current state of safety training, the strategies being used to
counter the rise in lawfare against independent journalism, and predicted hotspots for 2024.
Presentations from ACOS Alliance signatories and partners shared information about new
initiatives, rising challenges and recent research, and an afternoon dedicated to psychological
safety included a discussion on the causes and effects of moral injury on journalists and
the ways in which newsrooms, NGOs and peer networks can provide support.
The report will be shared across our community with the aim of advancing safety best practice through concrete, practical initiatives.