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May 30, 2006

Terrorizing Journalists to Preempt Real News?

The Iraq war is now officially the deadliest war for reporters in the past century. 71 journalists and 26 members of media support staff have been killed in Iraq, and 42 journalists have been kidnapped.

"It is absolutely striking," Ann Cooper, the executive director of the CPJ, said on Monday. "We talk to veteran war correspondents who have covered everything going back to Vietnam and through Bosnia. Even those who have seen a number of different wars say they have never seen something like this conflict."

Back in January, Kimberley Dozier, who was seriously injured over the weekend by a roadside bomb, wrote about the fear that journalists, soldiers, and the Iraqi people confront on a daily basis.

It took us a while to admit we were targets, and start to change the way we work — adding bodyguards, armoured vehicles, blast walls outside our hotels, and so on. But now going into Iraq is like being flung into a pot of water you can see boiling from a great height from far away. Inwardly, you’re screaming, “Arghh,” then you stifle it with a mental “Ulp.” […]

I’m fine. That is, until I get myself and a cameraman, soundman and perhaps a producer invited on a trip across town with the US military, just like our ABC colleagues Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt did.[…]

But if you want to tell their story, you have to take their risks. If we, the journalists, are sitting in hot water, the troops are hopping around on Hell’s coals. It’s even worse for the Iraqi army and police. And then you’ve got the Iraqi people, who are not restricted to tours of duty and have no ticket out.

A writer for Al Jazeera has concluded that the U.S. forces are actually allowing journalists to be killed on purpose in order to prevent them from telling the world what is really going on in Iraq.

Last week, Isam Rasheed, a freelance journalist, and Fumikazu Nishitani, head of Osaka-based NGO Rescue the Iraqi Children, briefed a public gathering in Osaka on the true situation in Iraq. "It is now virtually impossible for foreign journalists to move around independently in Iraq," Nishitani said.

One of the biggest secrets the U.S. is trying to hide, he writes, is the results that will forever be visited on the Iraqi people of our use of depleted uranium munitions.

[H]ow can the world know about the true extent of the devastation in Iraq, if reporters, who complain that harassment and intimidation by American soldiers in Iraq is growing, can’t do their job well. Journalists are the only people who’re able to transfer the Iraqis’ sufferings to the entire world.[…]

“U.S. military fire is the second-leading cause of death. At least nine journalists and two media support staff have died as a result of US fire in Iraq in the last 23 months."

Has killing become part of the Pentagon “Press Policy”?

Interesting question.

Posted by Becky at May 30, 2006 09:23 AM

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