Journalists in danger
Richard Butler rescued
[video:youtube:fvMB0cOHW4s] Freelance photographer Richard Butler was rescued by Iraqi soldiers. He was working for CBS News when he was kidnapped on February 10. Iraqi soldiers found him by chance when they happened to be searching the house he was being kept in, “The Iraqi army stormed the house and overcame my guards,” Butler said. “They […]
Somali journalists win award
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUOSJ) received an award from the fifth assembly of World Movement for Democracy (WMD) in Kiev, Ukraine today. In what is turning out to be something of a media awards week the NUSOJ were presented with the Democracy Courage Tribute on behalf of all Somali Journalists. NUSOJ Secretary General […]
Barry Bearak starts fifth day behind bars
New York Times reporter Barry Bearak and the un-named British journalist being held in Zimbabwe since last Thursday are now into their fifth day behind bars. They are being held even though Zimbabwe’s Attorney General said at the weekend that there was no case against them. According to lawyers no-one wants to hear the case, […]
No case against Barry Bearak
The AFP reports that Zimbabwe’s attorney general says there is no case against the New York Times journalist Barry Bearak and the un-named British journalist currently being held by the authorities in Zimbabwe, “The attorney general’s office says there is no case to answer,” lawyer Harrison Nkomo said. “Legally, this means the attorney general’s office […]
Back to Kurdistan
On the BBC World Service, Michael Goldfarb – author of Ahmad’s War, Ahmad’s Peace: Surviving Under Saddam and Dying in the New Iraq – writes and talks about returning to Kurdistan five years after the outbreak of war in Iraq, Erbil, Kurdistan, northern Iraq – every foreign correspondent has one place that gets under the […]
Ilyas Shurpayev killed
According to reports from Novosti Ilyas Shurpayev, a Russian television journalist, has been found dead in his apartment in the northeast of Moscow. The 32 year old was known for reporting from Russia’s North Caucasus including the republic of Daghestan, Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia and Chechnya, “According to a preliminary forensic medical examination, Ilyas […]
Iraqi journalist shot dead
Xinhua reports that an Iraqi journalist was shot dead in central Baghdad today. “Qasim Abdul Hussein al-Eqabi, a journalist working for the local al-Muwatin newspaper was killed when unknown gunmen in two cars showered him with bullets near the National Theater in Karrada neighborhood,” said Jabbar Tarrad, the new chief of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union. […]
Burmese bloggers continue to risk their lives
Some five months on since the violent suppression of the protest movement led by monks in Burma and the situation for bloggers is no better. The bloggers, who were such an important part of getting images, video and eyewitness accounts out of the country, continue to blog about life in Burma and relay information overseas. […]
Kidnap victim John Martinkus back in Afghanistan
SBS Dateline Video Journalist John Martinkus returns to Afghanistan to report on his time spent travelling with the US 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. John was kidnapped in 2004, where he was also embedded with US forces. At the time the BBC reported that Google saved him when his captors said they checked Google to confirm […]
Journalists are targets says Allan Little
Patrick Smith at the Press Gazette grills Allan Little, Frontline Club member, regular MC at club events and BBC foreign correspondent. Allan talks about his time in the former Yugoslavia and how the conflict changed his life, “The one that changed my life was Yugoslavia,†he says. “The funny thing was, it started within a […]
Prominent Iraqi journalist shot
From the International Federation of Journalists, President of the Iraqi Union of Journalists in Baghdad, Shihab Al-Timimi, 75, is in hospital in critical but stable condition after his car was hit by a hail of bullets in a targeted attack following a meeting of the union leadership in the Al Wazeiriyah district in the centre […]
Journalist shot dead in Iraq
From the International Herald Tribune, yet more tidings of joy for journalism in the Middle East, An Iraqi journalist who disappeared after leaving his offices to buy some supplies was found shot to death Tuesday in central Baghdad, according to his organization. Hisham Michwit Hamdan, 27, went missing Sunday after he left the offices of […]
CBS staff kidnapped in Basra
The Guardian reports this morning that two employees of the US broadcaster CBS News have been kidnapped in Basra in southern Iraq. One is believed to be a British journalist, The UK journalist was seized by gunmen in Basra with his interpreter on Sunday, according to the Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Iraq (Voice of Iraq). […]
Journalist murdered in Quetta
Paramedical workers carry the body of famous journalist Dr Chishti Mujahid on an ambulance – PakTribune According to The Daily Times Dr. Chishti Mujahid, a senior journalist and press photographer, was shot dead in Quetta on Saturday morning. The banned militant group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), has claimed responsibility for the murder. Dr. Mujahid […]
Grigory Pasko on Russian media
[video:youtube:n9OUmV-B14M] Journalist and blogger Grigory Pasko talks about how the murder of Anna Politkovskaya changed freedom of press in Russia, and discusses the new role of the internet.
It’s too dangerous
ABC News war correspondent, Terry McCarthy, talks about working in Iraq and how it is almost impossible to report from outside the green zone, “It’s a very dangerous war to cover and to go out and get those ‘feel good’ stories,” he said. “Being out among the people is extremely dangerous, so we have to […]
Missing Burmese blogger spotted
IFEX reports that a Burmese blogger has gone missing from his home in Rangoon. The blogger, Nay Phone Latt, was allegedly arrested on 29 January according to his mother, Daw Aye Aye Than. Although her son’s whereabouts cannot be confirmed, eyewitness accounts on Mizzima suggest he is being held at the Ministry of Home Affairs, […]
Help save Pervez Kambaksh
Blogging at The Guardian, Roy Greenslade points to a petition at The Independent newspaper to help save the journalist Pervez Kambaksh who has been sentenced to death in Kabul. His “crime” was something I do every single day and don’t give a second thought to – downloading material from the internet. Roy adds, I have […]
“I am here to take you to the airport”
In today’s Washington Post, freelance reporter Nicholas Schmidle talks about the dangers of reporting from Pakistan and how he was forced to leave, The police came for me on a cold, rainy Tuesday night last month. They stood in front of my home in Islamabad, four men with hoods pulled over their heads in the […]
Mohammed Al-Aarabid discusses his arrest in Gaza
Reporters Without Borders talks to Mohammed Al-Aarabid about his recent arrest in the Gaza Strip. Al-Aarabid is a cameraman with the French news agency Blue Press. He was arrested at his home in Gaza on 27 January 2008. After interogation in a detention centre he was released on 29 January, “They asked me if I […]
“Journalists are fair game”
Terry Anderson, the Associated Press war correspondent held hostage in Lebanon for six years during the 1980’s, speaks out about the present day safety situation for journalists, “[Iraq] is the most dangerous war that journalists have ever covered, by far,” Anderson said. “Eighty percent of the murders of journalists around the world are never investigated. […]
Kenyan crackdown
Shashank Bengali works for McClatchy newspapers and is based in Nairobi. He blogged about recent events in Kenya and took a number of snaps of the local media on the job recording what was happening. Here’s the clip for the snap above, Photog gets a closeup of the police van that was firing teargas and […]
Jean-Paul Ney arrested and charged
The French photojournalist Jean-Paul Ney who was detained on December 27, 2007 outside the headquarters of the national TV station in the Ivory Coast has been arrested and charged along with nine others, The 10 are accused of conspiracy against the state, belonging to an armed group, and threatening public safety and state security, said […]
Journalist arrested in Somalia
Reporters Without Borders reports that Ayanle Hussein Abdi, a stringer with the BBC Somali service, was arrested yesterday in Beletwein in the central region of Hiran. There has been no explanation for the arrest, “The very few journalists who continue to work in Somalia at risk of their lives are easy prey,†[said Reporters Without […]
Carsten Thomassen killed at the Serena
The gunfire and bomb blasts that rocked the only luxury hotel in Kabul yesterday killed Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen. He wrote for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet. He was reporting on the visit of Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian Foreign Minister. The International federation of Journalists condemns the attack, “This attack shows that Afghanistan is one […]
Richard Wild “unlawfully killed”
Richard Wild was killed while working on a feature about museum looting in Baghdad in July 2003. He had only been in the country for two weeks and wanted to establish himself as a war reporter. He was shot in the back of the head. At the time Oxford Coroner’s Court heard that the US […]
Getting the story out
Tim Arango, writing in the International Herald Tribune, considers the dangers facing journalists in Iraq and looks at the methods news organisations use to recruit local reporters, fixers and translators, “When you are working side by side, you get to know the person, and if the person seems unreliable, or if you ever see someone […]
Journalist faces death penalty
The British Foreign Secretary is facing pressure to help secure the release of a French-British journalist in Niger who faces the death penalty. The Press Association has more, Freelance photo-journalist Thomas Dandois was arrested along with two colleagues on a reporting trip for TV station ARTE on December 17. The 33-year-old, who holds a British […]
Citizen journalist beaten to death
Disturbing news for Chinese citizen journalists, bloggers and mobile phone camera people in The Guardian, A man who used his mobile phone to film a violent clash between villagers and officials in rural China was beaten to death by public order “enforcers”, Chinese state media reported yesterday, bringing more unwanted attention to the country’s unruly […]
Journalist killed in Niger
Within one minute of writing the previous post about journalist fatalities in 2007, we learn that Niger journalist and radio station director Abdou Mahaman has been killed by a landmine in the capital Niamey, He is the third civilian to die in explosions in the south since December, when the government accused Tuareg-led rebels of […]