2006: A Deadly Year For Journalists
peaceandj...@gmail.com
2006: A Deadly Year For Journalists
...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists found that at
least 55 journalists were killed this year in direct connection to
their work. The most violent country was Iraq where 32 journalists lost
their lives. [rush transcript included]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, on our last broadcast for 2006 - Democracy Now! takes a look at
the number of journalists killed this past year. A new report by the
Committee to Protect Journalists finds 2006 to be one of the most
dangerous years for journalists ever -- 55 journalists were killed in
direct connection to their work.
In Iraq alone, violence claimed the lives of 32 journalists. It was the
highest yearly death toll recorded by the organization so far in Iraq
or, in fact, any country in a single year.
Murder was the leading cause of journalist deaths around the world. The
CPJ report determined that less than 15 percent of journalist murders
result in convictions of their perpetrators...
--------------------------------
AMY GOODMAN: Frank Smyth is with us now, the Journalist Security
Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. He joins us from
Washington D.C. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Frank. It's great to have
you with us. In fact, Frank, you yourself, before we talk about this
year, were victim of a kidnapping. Your colleague killed during Desert
Storm, is that right?
FRANK SMYTH: Well, we were actually captured while embedded with
Kurdish rebels trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein and were held,
weren't kidnapped necessarily, but captured and held incommunicado
before being released.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And could you tell us in summary, what some of the most
troubling findings of this year's report were?
FRANK SMYTH: The most troubling finding is, number one, that the death
rate in Iraq is increasing, rising to 32, which is a record so far
since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. And in addition, 28 of the 32
journalists killed in Iraq in 2006, were outright murdered by insurgent
or other irregular forces, and almost all of them were Iraqis. So we
started seeing murders a few years ago in Iraq of journalists, but now
61% of journalists being killed in Iraq have been murdered. And that's
a disturbing and rising trend.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I also noticed in your report that as you mentioned,
overwhelmingly most of the journalists killed were Iraqis. Does that
mean that basically there's been an enormous pullout of foreign
journalists from the coverage or is it that the Iraqis are being
targeted more?
FRANK SMYTH: I think it's both. I think you have less foreign
correspondents operating in Iraq, and those that are operating are
rarely venturing beyond the Green Zone areas, near the Green Zone, to
avoid being kidnapped, as was the case with Jill Carroll. At the same
time you see an increasing number of journalists being targeted merely
for doing their work, whether they are working for U.S.-backed media,
western media, or independent Iraqi media that's emerged in the past
few years.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And I'd like to ask, in terms of those Iraqi journalists
who were killed, were most of them working for Iraqi news
organizations, or were these a lot of Iraqi journalists who have since
been hired by foreign news organizations?
FRANK SMYTH: Most of them in 2006 were working for Iraqi news
organizations.
AMY GOODMAN: The number of western journalists of course in Iraq has
gone down. With the dangers in the last few years, though, there have
been also a number killed by U.S. troops. Well, like, with what Reuters
described as one of the leading conflict cameramen of our time, Mazen
Dana, killed by U.S. troops outside Abu Ghraib. Then there was the Al
Jazeera reporter Tarik Ayoub, the U.S. military shelled the area around
the Al Jazeera office where he was on the roof. He was killed. What
kind of tone do you think that set early on, as we lead up to this
point where the bulk of the deaths are as a result of, well, you write
in the Committee to Protect Journalists report, insurgents?
FRANK SMYTH: The incidences involving U.S. forces, in particular the
shooting of Mazen Dana, was especially disturbing because he was shot
at relatively short range in a situation where called into question the
rules of engagement. We protested and asked for clarification from the
Pentagon about that shooting in particular, and the Pentagon eventually
did a comprehensive report and investigation of the shooting, which
exonerated the soldiers involved. But the report, itself, encouraged
the Pentagon to review its own rules of engagement so that U.S. forces
would be made aware of the right and presence of journalists operating
on the battlefield. And the Pentagon has never acknowledged whether or
not it has followed its own recommendations. But we've sent a number
of letters to former Secretary of State Rumsfeld and other officials,
encouraging them to follow that report's recommendations and to make
U.S. troops aware of the right and presence of journalists to operate
on the battlefield.
AMY GOODMAN: Of course, perhaps the most famous U.S. attack on
journalists was the shelling of the Palestine Hotel where hundreds of
un-embedded reporters worked, and two cameramen were killed. Taras
Protsyuk from Reuters-he came from the Ukraine--and Jose Couso. This
was right--the day before the U.S. forces took Baghdad and pulled down
that statue of Saddam Hussein. Just in the last few weeks a Spanish
judge has ruled that the U.S. soldiers involved in the killing of Jose
Couso could be-could be subpoenaed or indicted.
FRANK SMYTH: There are two issues there. One is the issue of the
soldiers that operated on the ground, and the U.S. military also did an
investigation of that incident. Those were the few incidents where the
U.S. military has conducted its own investigation and again exonerated
the soldiers on the ground. But the issue that remains unresolved is
why wasn't information about the fact that that hotel was filled with
journalists communicated to troops on the ground. The U.S. military's
own investigation never looked at the command and control issues that
were illustrated by that tragedy.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Frank Smyth, I'd like to ask you about other countries
in your report. I think you list the Philippines, Afghanistan, of
course Colombia, which has traditionally been one of the most dangerous
countries in the world. Could you talk about some of the major cases
that you covered that occurred this year?
FRANK SMYTH: Sure. One of them, in the Philippines we've seen a number
of murders for many years, most of which have gone unresolved. Overall,
one thing to point out is that 61% of the journalists killed in Iraq
since 2003 have been murdered. The actual worldwide level of murders is
higher. 70% of all journalists killed worldwide over the past 15 years
have in fact been outright murdered. And the Philippines now is nearly
at the top of the list. You've also had cases like Hayatullah Khan, a
journalist in Pakistan who disappeared for a number of weeks before his
body was discovered and he had been, murdered, we believe in
retaliation for his work. So we've see journalists--
AMY GOODMAN: Frank, can you talk more about that? That was very
significant, what he was investigating.
FRANK SMYTH: He was investigating a U.S. military air strike according
to family members and his colleagues. He then disappeared. We made
inquiries attempting to find out who might have him. It was very
difficult to get any cooperation and eventually his corpse was
discovered. He had been murdered. And we believe that he was killed in
retaliation for his work, and his investigation into that air strike,
in particular, looks like the most likely cause.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the Russian journalist who was killed
most recently this year that leads up to the latest scandal that we're
seeing unfold now in Britain with the former Russian spy.
FRANK SMYTH: Well, the journalist, the most recent journalist killed in
Russia is one of about a dozen journalists that we believe have been
murdered in retaliation for their work in recent years, one of them
being the former U.S. journalist and Forbes correspondent Paul
Klebnikov. But you've seen a number of journalists being murdered in
Russia, in particular, investigative journalists, whether they are
foreigners or Russian journalists. And the impunity rates; so far none
of those crimes have been resolved. Overall, worldwide, over the past
15 years, the impunity rate for murdered journalists is about 85%,
unfortunately.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now in terms of Colombia and Latin America, it appears
on the surface that things are improving in some those countries in
terms of the--some of them had very high rates of murders of
journalists, could you comment on that?
FRANK SMYTH: Well, they say it's improving. In a place like Colombia,
after so many journalists have been murdered with almost complete
impunity over the years, you don't need murder that many more
journalists to keep journalists from wanting to investigate difficult
or sensitive matters, especially human rights abuses or ties between
military and paramilitary forces that have been responsible for a great
deal violence against journalists. So the fact that the number of
Colombian journalists being murdered suspect as high as five or ten
years ago, isn't necessarily indicative of much of an improvement. I
think you still have the lingering effect, the residue of that previous
violence, and in Colombia there are very few investigative journalists
left that are really looking at those kind of issues. And of those
journalists that are left, Ignacio Gomez and Homer Flores, have
themselves been subject to death threats and periodically have been
forced to leave the country...
to continue reading click here:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/29/1446225