Ms Chantal Joris:

I support Ms Evans' call on bringing the intervention and focusing on preservation of evidence and protection of journalists. We said the ICC has taken a long time to take action, partly for political reasons but it is also very complicated to bring cases about atrocities happening in Gaza when Gaza is not accessible to, for example, the ICC.

There are, according to the ICRC, about 120 armed conflicts happening now. Many do not make the media spotlight and are not at quite the scale we see in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza but they exist. Before, during and after the conflict, those are generally volatile situations so focusing on conflict in and of itself might not be sufficient. The protection of journalists during conflict has to start before the conflict does, before the bombs start dropping. Support of local media and initiatives that strengthen independence of and respect for the media can begin before the unfortunate moment when armed conflict breaks out and when parties will be less inclined than ever to care about freedom of the press.