Iraq takes heavy toll on press corps
The Financial Times (Aug 17) reports a detailed analysis of media workers killed in the war: The conflict in Iraq has become the deadliest of any modern war for the press, according to reports from journalist organisations that are causing deep concern in newsrooms around the world.
At least 112 editors, reporters and photographers, and a further 40 media support staff such as translators and drivers, have been killed on duty in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
By contrast, the CPJ estimates, 38 journalists died covering Algeria’s conflict between 1993 and 1996, 66-71 died covering Vietnam, and 68 died while reporting on the second world war.
Last year’s death toll in Iraq was the highest the CPJ had recorded in a single country since its foundation in 1981.
The CPJ’s estimate counts only those deaths that its researchers can verify as having been caused by hostile action - such as deliberately targeting a journalist or when a reporter is caught in cross-fire - and excludes accidents such as car and aircraft crashes.
Other estimates put the death toll even higher. Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for press freedom, calculates that at least 198 journalists and media assistants have been killed in the conflict and scores more have been kidnapped.
The International Federation of Journalists puts the number above 200.
Media workers’ deaths in conflict:
Iraq (since Mar 2003) 112
Vietnam (1955-1975) 66
Korean War 17
World War II 68
World War I 2
Deaths in Iraq
By nationality
Iraqi 90
European 13
Other Arab countries 3
US 2
All other countries 5
Note: one journalist had dual Iraqi-Swedish citizenship and he is listed in each nationality
By circumstances
Murdered 73
Crossfire or other acts of war 39
By embedded status
Embedded 7
Non embedded or ‘unilateral’ 105
By job
Nationality Deaths
Photojournalists* 28
Reporters and editors 70
Producers 7
Technicians 7
*Includes still photographers and camera operators
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom Forum
The organisations agree, however, that the loss of life has been heaviest among Iraqi journalists. Security fears have prompted many US and European news organisations to restrict their reporters’ travel, leaving them heavily reliant on Iraqi reporting about events outside Baghdad.
According to the CPJ, 90 Iraqi journalists have died covering the conflict, compared with 13 Europeans and two US citizens. Many worked for Iraqi news organisations such as Aswat al-Iraq, a news agency, and Radio Free Iraq, but others appear to have been targeted for working for western news outlets.
Hundreds of foreign reporters, often embedded with US and UK military units, were covering Iraq at the beginning of the war. The spiralling violence has since forced many international broadcasters and newspapers to scale back their operations and rely on Iraqi journalists, says Joel Campagna, Middle East senior programme co-ordinator for the CPJ.
“Over the last three years Iraqi journalists have assumed an indispensable role in reporting this conflict and making local and international news-gathering possible,” he says. “Their increased role has translated into increased risk.”
The violence, coupled with the cost of providing security, has deterred all but Iraq’s own media and the largest international news organisations from maintaining a presence in Iraq. “One thing you don’t see much of is freelancers,” Mr Campagna notes.
The CPJ estimates 84 of the journalists killed in Iraq were victims of insurgent action, either murdered or caught up in suicide bombings or crossfire.
It attributes 15 deaths to US fire, but says its investigations have found no evidence of deliberate targeting of journalists by US troops.
Reuters has lost six journalists in conflict, all killed by US troops.The news agency has asked the US military to investigate last month’s deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, a photographer and driver, after its inquiries challenged the US account that they had died in a firefight with insurgents.
“Our preliminary investigation raises real questions about whether there was fighting at the time the two men were killed,” says David Schlesinger, Reuters editor-in-chief.
In a blog entry after the event, Mr Schlesinger commented: “There aren’t many news organisations left in Iraq. The ones that are there take a terrible calculated risk.”
Iraqi journalists such as Khalid Hassan, a reporter and interpreter shot while driving to work for the New York Times in Baghdad last month, run additional risks because the war has invaded the neighbourhoods in which they live, Mr Campagna says. “For Iraqi journalists living in the conflict it is very difficult to escape.”
The threats to Iraq’s journalists have come just as the country is trying to build up its media, he notes.
“Since the invasion, more Iraqis than ever have joined the profession of journalism. [But] many have been forced to leave the profession or seek refuge in other countries because of threats they have received because of their journalism.”
