Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), the media freedom watchdog group, has published its report on the toll of the Iraq war for journalists, and it is gruesome:
The Iraq conflict is the deadliest inter-state war for journalists since the one in Vietnam, when 63 were killed, but over a period of 20 years (1955-75). During the fighting in the former Yugoslavia (1991-95), 49 journalists were killed doing their job.
(…)
The media was targeted from the first day of the fighting in Iraq, when cameraman Paul Moran, of the Australian TV network ABC, was killed by a car bomb on 22 March 2003.
Go read the rest of that press release, and the full report here (pdf, 12 pages), it has more detailed information on who was killed, where, and by whom.
What would the press like to have happen in order to more assure their safety?
Chris Hedges was on CSPAN2’s airing of the L.A. Festival of Books, and bemoaned how the press is covering the war in Iraq. In fact, he said the press is NOT covering the war.
He recalled how he covered El Salvador 20+ years ago, for example. He’d spend 3-4 days with the rebels, then 3-4 days with the military … he got both sides, and saw them up close. Essential for any realistic reporting of a war. He says that never happens in Iraq. (Not sure journalists could do that, but his point is well taken.)
They are too busy filming forced confessions of sodomy and airing it on American sponsored televison.
Too bad that PA Congressman is a Republican, otherwise FOX, CNN and MSNBC would have a story for days.
P.S. I was disappointed in Mark Bowden’s comments on CSPAN2 / LA Times Book Festival. He was a panelist with Chris Hedges. He is convinced that the American people have full access to news out of Iraq. As an example, he cited an Arab family in Detroit that watches Al Jazeera on their satellite. He further said that HE, Mark Bowden, has access to all the news from newspapers around the world, and so any other American can do the same. (Mark needs to mix with the regular folk a little more.) He strikes me as someone who’s not particularly burdened by self-doubt.
Then there’s this new story:
Worker’s finger found in frozen custard