United States of America
Practice Relating to Rule 34. Journalists
The US Naval Handbook (2007) states:
War correspondents, although civilians, may be accredited by the armed forces that they accompany. While war correspondents are not combatants, their close proximity to combatants means that they may be incidentally killed or injured during a lawful attack on a military objective.
In 1987, the Deputy Legal Adviser of the US Department of State affirmed: “We also support the principle that journalists be protected as civilians under the [1949 Geneva] Conventions, provided they take no action adversely affecting such status.”
In 1992, in a report submitted pursuant to paragraph 5 of UN Security Council Resolution 771 (1992) on grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV committed in the former Yugoslavia, the United States included the killing of a television producer and the wounding of a camerawoman by sniper fire in Sarajevo among “deliberate attacks on non-combatants”.