There is counter on the International News Safety Institute website. Three days ago it rested at 20. On the 31 December 2006 the count had reached 138.
This is the number of journalists killed in war zones every year.
296 is the sum of deaths since January 2005, just over two years ago. I recently came across the obituary for Terry Lloyd one of ITN's most experienced correspondents who was killed after 20 years in Iraq on March 22 2003. When reading this I felt some deja vu for the response I had to the death of Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. Surely we shouldn't be shocked if a person who has spent years playing Russian roulette gets a fatal hit.
Lloyd's death was described as tragic "one can be certain that he would not have entered into a foolhardy enterprise". He was killed in "friendly fire", shot under the guise of an oxymoronic phrase that has always been lost on me, by our own troops whose whole purpose is to restore peace to a nation. I am unable to define such a thing as an act of "foolhardy enterprise" when Lloyd's job description dictates danger.
The first ever comprehensive journalist safety survey says: "Two journalists killed every week over last 10 years".
News Safety Institute
Thursday, 8 March 2007
World record deaths
Yesterday there was an article in the Financial Times entitled "Killing of journalists escalate to world record levels". The FT website charges a subcription so I will post the article tomorrow when I am able to scan it.
EDITED 13/03: What is said in this piece is covered by other posts, I am still trying to figure out how to post the map. Bare with me!
EDITED 13/03: What is said in this piece is covered by other posts, I am still trying to figure out how to post the map. Bare with me!
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
Documentary at Frontline
This Sunday there will be a screening of The General's War at the Frontline club followed by a Q&A with director Olly Lambert. The show begins at 4.30pm costing £5.
The screening is said to have "unprecedented access behind the scenes of NATO’s war in Afghanistan", following the commander-in-chief at the frontline of the 'War on Terror'.
You will travel though wild and dangerous territory with Canadian troops, assisted by US Special Forces, as they try to implement the General’s orders to win over the Afghans.
"Sometimes hilarious, occasionally tragic, this is an unexpected real-life insight into the lives of frontline soldiers reminiscent of MASH and Catch-22."
Frontline club
The screening is said to have "unprecedented access behind the scenes of NATO’s war in Afghanistan", following the commander-in-chief at the frontline of the 'War on Terror'.
You will travel though wild and dangerous territory with Canadian troops, assisted by US Special Forces, as they try to implement the General’s orders to win over the Afghans.
"Sometimes hilarious, occasionally tragic, this is an unexpected real-life insight into the lives of frontline soldiers reminiscent of MASH and Catch-22."
Frontline club
Monday, 5 March 2007
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
An anonymous response to "Do you feel like you know enough?" that points out the authority of a war reporter as "the only window" to the world of war made me think of Janet Cooke, one of the most famous journalists found to have fabricated stories.
Cooke won a Pulizer Prize for her story "Jimmy's World", which appeared in the Washington Post in September 1980. When it was discovered that the story was fraudulent Cooke resigned and the prize was returned. More recently Jack Kelley a correspondent for USA Today was found to have fabricated around 100 stories including an account of a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2003.
Famed sociologist Jean Baudrillard wrote a controversial and widely misunderstood book entitled The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. He believed in hyperreality which is a postmodern concept explaining that everything we experience second hand (i.e. through television, writing, photographs or word of mouth) never really existed.
Anything that is reported to the public is merely a reproduction of what was experienced, we must trust journalists to present an accurate account of what it is that they see.
Jack Kelley is Exposed
Report on Janet Cooke's prize winning tale
Cooke won a Pulizer Prize for her story "Jimmy's World", which appeared in the Washington Post in September 1980. When it was discovered that the story was fraudulent Cooke resigned and the prize was returned. More recently Jack Kelley a correspondent for USA Today was found to have fabricated around 100 stories including an account of a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2003.
Famed sociologist Jean Baudrillard wrote a controversial and widely misunderstood book entitled The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. He believed in hyperreality which is a postmodern concept explaining that everything we experience second hand (i.e. through television, writing, photographs or word of mouth) never really existed.
Anything that is reported to the public is merely a reproduction of what was experienced, we must trust journalists to present an accurate account of what it is that they see.
Jack Kelley is Exposed
Report on Janet Cooke's prize winning tale
Thursday, 1 March 2007
War reporting just isn’t my thing
A little about me, I’m a 22-year-old who favours Grazia over the Economist. I have always loved to write, anything, and I am endlessly nosy. Combining these passions I found my niche, journalism. This blog began as an academic task. When asked to create a blog on a current affairs issue my first thought was, “The demise of Britney Spears’ hair” or on a wider scale “Can curls really be the new straight?”
A friend mentioned the matter of the war reporter death toll rising and the affect this is having on independent coverage from war zones. I was intrigued, but this was not something I would usually consider writing about. Every time I open up a newspaper and try to understand what is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon so much past knowledge is assumed that I tend to shy away from the subject feeling ignorant to the issues and ashamed that I don’t know more. I feel that I have a basic understanding but I am nowhere near confident enough to vocalise an informed opinion.
By choosing to tackle this subject I forced myself to jump in at the proverbial deep end and I assume that I will have to ask a lot of seemingly obvious questions along the way. Aside from my choice of publication and enthusiasm for hair I like to think of my attitude as more Jane Austen than Jessica Simpson and I am alarmed at how much I have missed because of my anticipation to enter the debate. I didn’t want to appear stupid. But I have come to realise that too many abstain from offering opinion with my same excuses. I find it impossible to believe that anyone could fail to be interested in this topic.
If you’ve found yourself lost in all the jargon, I urge you to come join me on this journey of discovery. And if you are far more knowledgeable and worldly you may at the very least find my little blog an amusing insight from a relatively humble being. This has surpassed the original purpose and become a conquest to extinguish my own ignorance to a very real affair. I invite you to learn with me.
In the next few weeks I intend to interview journalists and casualties of war, review books, address any issues that arise in the press, attend events at organisations and relay it all for you and your comment.
A friend mentioned the matter of the war reporter death toll rising and the affect this is having on independent coverage from war zones. I was intrigued, but this was not something I would usually consider writing about. Every time I open up a newspaper and try to understand what is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon so much past knowledge is assumed that I tend to shy away from the subject feeling ignorant to the issues and ashamed that I don’t know more. I feel that I have a basic understanding but I am nowhere near confident enough to vocalise an informed opinion.
By choosing to tackle this subject I forced myself to jump in at the proverbial deep end and I assume that I will have to ask a lot of seemingly obvious questions along the way. Aside from my choice of publication and enthusiasm for hair I like to think of my attitude as more Jane Austen than Jessica Simpson and I am alarmed at how much I have missed because of my anticipation to enter the debate. I didn’t want to appear stupid. But I have come to realise that too many abstain from offering opinion with my same excuses. I find it impossible to believe that anyone could fail to be interested in this topic.
If you’ve found yourself lost in all the jargon, I urge you to come join me on this journey of discovery. And if you are far more knowledgeable and worldly you may at the very least find my little blog an amusing insight from a relatively humble being. This has surpassed the original purpose and become a conquest to extinguish my own ignorance to a very real affair. I invite you to learn with me.
In the next few weeks I intend to interview journalists and casualties of war, review books, address any issues that arise in the press, attend events at organisations and relay it all for you and your comment.
Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Passion for the truth
Today I found a speech by a world renowned Middle East correspondent for the Independant Robert Fisk, on the role of journalists. He offers his original perception that journalists are "the first witnesses to history" and denounces this as wrong. An Israeli war correspondent had dashed this whimsy when she put it to him that journalists are there to monitor the centres of power, challenge authorities who are going to war and killing people, telling lies to do it. Fisk compassionately declares that "war is not about defeat or victory, it is about the total failure of the human spirit".
The seven times British International Journalist of the year conveys his astonishment for the hypocrisy of society shielding the public from any real violence, "television will not show the horrors we've seen." He points out how ironic it is that the same government who sends troops to kill civilians excuse the publication of photographic evidence out of "respect for the dead". Fisk questions why it is that we allow violence in the form of cinematic entertainment but hide from the reality.
He goes on to brand the relationship developing between reporter and government as “parasitic”, it is seen as unpatriotic to question your countries foreign policy. He opens a copy of the Los Angeles Times and dissects an article written in Washington: "Great place to write about Iraq", he muses. Fisk quotes from the piece dozens of sources that all originate from the government, "US authorities say, US officials say, US authorities believe," etc. Eloquently exemplifying the issue, war is harsh and brutal for all involved but if we are not able to report from the scene, "What’s the point in having reporters? Forget it, we can employ the government or they can employ us!"
Robert Fisk
The seven times British International Journalist of the year conveys his astonishment for the hypocrisy of society shielding the public from any real violence, "television will not show the horrors we've seen." He points out how ironic it is that the same government who sends troops to kill civilians excuse the publication of photographic evidence out of "respect for the dead". Fisk questions why it is that we allow violence in the form of cinematic entertainment but hide from the reality.
He goes on to brand the relationship developing between reporter and government as “parasitic”, it is seen as unpatriotic to question your countries foreign policy. He opens a copy of the Los Angeles Times and dissects an article written in Washington: "Great place to write about Iraq", he muses. Fisk quotes from the piece dozens of sources that all originate from the government, "US authorities say, US officials say, US authorities believe," etc. Eloquently exemplifying the issue, war is harsh and brutal for all involved but if we are not able to report from the scene, "What’s the point in having reporters? Forget it, we can employ the government or they can employ us!"
Robert Fisk
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Do you feel like you know enough?
"Despite scouring two national newspapers every day, listening to the radio, surfing the web and watching TV news, I have absolutely no clue how the war is going."
- Letter to the editor, The Guardian, London
A quote taken from Philip Knightley's
The first casualty
- Letter to the editor, The Guardian, London
A quote taken from Philip Knightley's
The first casualty
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