News and Views of Journalists

Reuters photographer Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, left, was recently released after 17 months under US military detention in Iraq. The question to ask is – why was little fuss made in the media about his detention?

Jassam is just one of hundreds of journalists around the world who face serious problems in pursuing their work.

Every year, journalists are threatened, jailed, beaten and killed in their quest to report the news.

War zones are obviously dangerous to cover. But even in peacetime, some countries are difficult to report in and pose a threat to a free press. Over the last few years, the death toll of journalists in Russia has risen to 17, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), and nobody has been brought to justice. Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov are the most well-known.

The November 2009 massacre of journalists in Maguindanao in the Philippines is a chilling reminder of the dangers journalists face in some countries. The Philippines ranks in the top five most deadly countries for journalists.

Below we take a look at the casualties, the threats, and the kidnapping.

On the brighter side, we also include the views of journalists on digital journalism today and how journalism is viewed today.

Double standards?

Spare a thought for local journalists working in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. When Western journalists get detained, kidnapped, injured or killed, the media in North America and Europe make a fuss. Look at the case of the two journalists recently released by the North Korean government. Or the case of Stephen Farrell of the New York Times kidnapped by the Taliban and then rescued in a military operation.

Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed is Iraqi. He was working as a photographer for Reuters when he was grabbed by US soldiers from his home just south of Baghdad in September 2008 and locked up in military detention without charge. He was finally released on Feb. 10. According to a Reuters report, the US military said the evidence against him was classified.

Although Reuters and journalism rights groups tried to publicize his case, there was little in the way of media coverage. As Reuters points out, Jassam was one of several Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organizations who have been detained since the 2003 US invasion.

As Reuters reports, the Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled in 2008 that there was no case against Jassam, yet the US military continued to detain him claiming he was a “security threat.”

Media rights groups suspect the US military tries to intimidate local journalists who are covering US military action in Iraq.

If a Western reporter is detained or kidnapped, the media devotes space to the story – check out our piece on British journalist Farrell below. But in the case of Jassam, there was little in the newspapers or on TV.

Clearly, this is a case of media double standards.

The following videos examine the problem:

Reuters photographer held by US forces – Why? asks The Young Turks

Double Standard for Jailed Foreign Journalists – August 2009 (Press TV)

Philippine Reality

The murders of 18 journalists traveling with a political candidate in Maguindanao in the Philippines in November 2009 shows the dangers faced in the Philippines. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says the death toll is the worst single incident for the press since 1992, when the CPJ began taking the toll.

The deadliest event prior to this was took place in Iraq on October 12, 2006 when eleven employees of a television station in Baghdad were killed, according the CPJ. Five of the victims were journalists and six were media support workers.

Up until the recent massacre in the Philippines, Iraq had the highest casualties with 141 killed and Philippines was number five on the list behind Algeria, Russia and Columbia, with 38 journalists killed since 1992.

The Philippines can be a dangerous place for journalists to operate, as outlined in a story for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, entitled, “Terror, fear hinder journalism”. The situation is not helped by a media culture of corruption and bias (see “News for Sale” on the problem of media corruption).

Deadly Hotspots

The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps tabs on the numbers of journalists killed in various parts of the world, with Iraq as the top Hotspot.

CPJ’s List of Deadliest Countries – death Toll since 1992 (as of Feb. 12, 2010)

1. Iraq 141
2. Algeria 60
3. Russia 52
4. Columbia 42
5. Philippines 68
6. Somalia 32
7. Pakistan 26
8. India 26
9. Turkey 20
10. Afghanistan 21
11. Bosnia 19
12. Mexico 19
13. Sri Lanka 18
14. Tajikistan 17
15. Rwanda 16
16. Brazil 16
17. Sierra Leone 16
18. Bangladesh 12
19. Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory 10
20. Angola 9

Theaters of War

Iraq remains No. 1 in terms of danger for journalists but as the CPJ highlights there are fears for the safety of other theaters of war, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan. When it comes to Western media coverage of journalist casualties, the media tends to be selective, devoting major coverage to the threat to a visiting Western reporter, yet showing little interest in the plight of local reporters.

Journalists are not supposed to become the subject of the story. Yet that is what happened when Stephen Farrell, of the New York Times, and his interpreter Sultan Munadi were kidnapped on Sept. 5, 2009 in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, while investigating a NATO air strike on a two hijacked fuel tankers that reportedly killed 56 Taliban fighters and more than a dozen villagers.

Four days after they were kidnapped by militants, a British army raid rescued Farrell. Interpreter Munadi was killed, as was a British soldier. It is unclear whether Munadi was killed by the Taliban or accidently by the British forces.

While Farrell returned to celebration, the death of Munadi riled his Afghan reporting colleagues.

CPJ Blog – Afghan journalists call for justice in Munadi’s death
They are angry about the death of New York Times journalist Sultan Mohammed Munadi in the September 9 British-led rescue attempt to free him and Times’ reporter Stephen Farrell, who survived unharmed, from kidnappers.
Stephen Farrell’s account of his abduction by the Taliban
David Rohde – held for months by the Taliban – on the kidnapping dilemma faced by the media
Was Wikipedia correct to censor news of David Rohde’s capture? – Asks Christian Science Monitor
New York Times’ interactive feature on David Rohde kidnapping and escape

Reporting America at War – PBS
Series explores the role of American journalists in the pivotal conflicts of the 20th century and beyond. From San Juan Hill to the beaches of Normandy, from the jungles of Vietnam to the Persian Gulf, the three-hour documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Stephen Ives tells the dramatic and often surprising stories of the reporters who witnessed and wrote the news from the battlefield. Through the lens of their experiences, the film examines the challenges of frontline reporting and illuminates the role of the correspondent in shaping the way wars have been remembered and understood.

118 days in Hell – Newsweek journalist reveals the dark side of the Iranian regime
In June 2009, Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was arrested in Tehran. “The interrogator sat me in a wooden chair,” Bahari writes. “It had a writing arm, like the chair I’d had in primary school. He ordered me to look down, even though I was already blindfolded: ‘Never look up, Mr. Bahari. While you are here—and we don’t know how long you’re going to be here—never look up.’ All I could see from under the blindfold was the interrogator’s black leather slippers. They worried me. He had settled in for a long session.

Amanda Lindhout

For Novice Journalists, Rising Risks in Conflict Zones
Amanda Lindhout was a waitress at an Irish pub in Calgary, Alberta, with a dream of becoming a journalist. But Ms. Lindhout, who has no formal journalistic training, did not join the ranks of citizen journalists who blog about their communities. Instead, she used her earnings from the bar to finance reporting trips to several of the world’s most dangerous war zones.

Two journalists freed in Somalia after 15 months as captives
Lindhout and Nigel Brennan were released on Nov. 25, 2009.

Discussion on CBC about Lindhout case

Lindhout pleas for her release

Amanda Lindhout’s website

Russian Roulette

Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead at point blank range in the elevator of her appartment in Moscow on Oct. 7, 2006. The prominent Russian journalist and human rights activist was well known for her reporting on Chechnya and criticism of Vladimir Putin and the Russian secret service.

As Russia sought to redefine itself following the collapse of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union, Politkovskaya, working from Izvestia and as an author, sought to document what she termed as the death of Russian parliamentary democracy and the corruption within the political system, and is reported to have received a number of death threats.

Her murder demonstrates how dangerous it is to challenge the system in Russia.

Politkovskaya’s Death, Other Killings, Raise Questions About Russian Democracy
Anna Politkovskaya – Three Years Later Russia Looks the Same
Letter to Anna – The Story of Journalist Politkovskaya’s Death

Colleagues urge investigation into Russian journalist Olga Kotovskaya’s death

Digital Journalist

David Dunkley Gyimah

The future is here and now when it comes to David Dunkley Gyimah. What do you call him? A VJ? A backpack journalist? A SoJo? Or a multimedia innovator who jumped on the solo video journalist bandwagon early and now envisions a future where viewers interact and participate in an online world.

Gyimah is riding “new wave story telling.” He is one of Britain’s leading videojournalists and trainers stressing that every picture paints a story.

The net has “got up and left home,” as he describes it. It is happening now. It is the new wave, what is called the Outernet, something that would have been unimaginable 10 years ago. Gyimah’s world is one of hyperlinked knowledge, interaction, and more.

Gyimah’s View Magazine
Apple’s Pro Page – David Dunkley Gyimah: One-Man Hurricane

The Outernet

Journalists on Journalism Today

As news organizations cut back on staff and expenses yet expect more of their reporters and editors, many journalists fear the quality of journalism is suffering. In the following stories and videos, journalists offer their views on the state of journalism today.

Roy Greenslade of the Guardian in London passes on a journalist’s concern
NPR’s Scott Simon on journalism becoming “deprofessionalized” – video
Jeff Jarvis talks about journalism today on BigThink.com
Here is Jeff’s blog – BuzzMachine

Journalist describes time in Iranian custody – 09 July 09

At least 35 Iranian journalists have been arrested since protests against the result of recent elections began. Some foreign journalists were also detained. Iason Athanasiadis, a Greek-British reporter, was held for three weeks in Tehran’s Evin prison. He’s now back home in Athens, where Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips asked him to describe what happened after his arrrest.

G20: Indymedia journalist Melissa Hill; arrested, camera broken, footage confiscated
Interview with Twin Cities Independent Media Center reporter, Melissa Hill. Melissa was arrested on Friday 25th September 2009 while covering police actions against students, pedestrians, and journalists in the area of the University of Pittsburgh, on Day 2 of the G-20. Interview by Twin Cities Indymedia reporter Nigel Parry on 26 September 2009.

Interview – Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist
Interview with independent journalist Dahr Jamail author of “Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.”

The Age of the Warrior
Interview with Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent for The Independent (UK) and author of “The Age of the Warrior: Selected Essays by Robert Fisk.”