'Nightmare terrain' for journos
2004-09-16 09:00
Baghdad - With nearly 30 journalists killed in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion and the country in the grip of a terrifying foreign hostage crisis, Iraq has become nightmare terrain for journalists.
Last month's kidnapping of two French newsmen shattered journalists' dwindling sense of security, particularly given Paris had been such a high-profile opponent of last year's US-led invasion.
Adding to the woes, the very act of covering battles between US troops and the insurgents has become the equivalent of Russian roulette, with reporters finding themselves suddenly trapped on the frontline.
In the latest case, a Palestinian television journalist was killed on Sunday in a US air strike as he was giving a live report to camera on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents in the heart of the Iraqi capital.
Journos feel 'vulnerable'
While the security situation in Iraq has deteriorated since April, the snatching of the two French reporters - Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot - ushered in a new atmosphere of fear.
"It made us feel more vulnerable... that it could happen to anybody," said Farnaz Fassihi, a Wall Street Journal correspondent.
Previously journalists had thought they were safe from kidnappings if they carried a non-coalition passport, she said. No longer.
Reporters are taking far more precautions. Didier Francois, a war correspondent for Paris daily Liberation, warned the latest kidnappings meant all journalists should be looking over their shoulder.
Francois pointed to the continuing ordeal of his two compatriots and last week's kidnapping of two Italian aid workers - Simona Pari and Simona Torreta - whose organisation A Bridge for Baghdad has been strongly critical of Western policy on Iraq.
"I think the time it is taking to free the two French journalists and the kidnapping of the two Italian NGO workers is showing a change of patterns in the resistance's operations," Francois said.
"Despite all the appeals of the main clerics and despite the fact the Italian NGO was working even in Fallujah, it hasn't been possible to free them.
'No protection'
It seems that some kind of protection that was there - or at least one believed to be there - is gone. It's a dangerous sign."
Beyond the panic over the kidnappings, journalists are still dying just covering the daily stories of bombings and clashes across the country.
Mazen al-Tomaisi, 28, who worked for satellite news channel Al-Arabiya, was killed on Sunday when a US helicopter fired missiles on a mob in Baghdad after a string of bombings across the capital.
The International Federation of Journalists has called for an urgent investigation into his death.
Late last month, Italian newspaper journalist Enzo Baldoni was shot dead by his Islamic militant captors after Rome refused an ultimatum to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
Also in August, police in the holy city of Najaf rounded up dozens of reporters at gunpoint from a hotel from which they were preparing to cover the US-led Iraqi assault on militia positions in city centre.
The International News Safety Institute, dedicated to protecting journalists from violence, has appealed to all sides in the conflict to stop targeting media personnel.
At least 12 Iraqis have been killed while working in the media since 2003 and their work has become increasingly important to international news organizations fearful for the safety of foreign correspondents in insurgent bastions like Fallujah.
In May, the British news agency Reuters said three of its Iraqi employees were physically and sexually abused by US soldiers at a base near Fallujah.
The employees informed Reuters right after their release in January but only decided to go public after the US military insisted there was no evidence to back up the charges.
Aside from death and kidnapping, the interim Iraqi government has also extended indefinitely a month-long ban on Al-Jazeera television on charges of incitement to violence.