Reporting from hell

Iraqslogger has this grisly report on the fate of journalists in Iraq during the year ended May 3, 2007:

51 journalists killed and assassinated. 18 abducted. 14 arrested or detained. 40 different assault cases against media organizations.

According to Iraqslogger, the report was compiled by the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory in Iraq (JFOI). From the Iraqslogger dispatch:

JFOI said the total number of violations had doubled over the last year, with an average of one violation against a journalist every three days. The organization added that infringements against the freedoms of Iraqi journalists were not only carried out by terrorists, militant groups, militias, and Multi-National Forces, but also by Iraqi security forces, local authorities in Iraqi governorates, and Iraqi parliament. All violations have been made with impunity, the report asserted.

From the of names, dates, and details provided in the Iraqslogger report, it would seem that terrorists, insurgents, and militias were responsible for most if not all of the killings and kidnappings - if I am right in my assumption that these are the unidentified gunmen most often named as the perpetrators.

The Multi-National Forces, on the other hand, seem to confine themselves to detaining reporters or confiscating their laptops or cameras. I assume this happens in cases when they suspect reporters of colluding with terrorists and insurgents.

Iraqi officials on the other hand seem to infringe on the rights of journalists most often by shutting down those who incite sectarian violence insult the government.

But read the details provided by the JFOI yourself to see if get a different impression.

Why we still don't understand the situation in Iraq

Sherry Ricchiardi in the American Journalism Review has a must-read report on why

Americans are still so confused as to what is really happening in Iraq. Some excerpts:
The relentless violence in Iraq has seriously compromised coverage of arguably the most important story in the world today...

Though journalists struggle mightily to cut through the fog and spin, Americans are left without a complete account of a prolonged, bloody war that is devouring billions of taxpayers' dollars. Correspondents are hamstrung when it comes to independently verifying information from military press briefings or rhetoric from the Pentagon. Without risking their lives, they can't go into the festering city of Fallujah or certain Baghdad neighborhoods to conduct their own investigations. Embedding is an alternative, but it offers a limited view under scrutiny of the military...

To blend in, female journalists often don an abaya, a long robe worn by Muslim women, and a head scarf. Some male reporters with dark features grow moustaches and beards and try to emulate the attire of Iraqi men. Some blondes dye their hair black. Many operate on the 15-minute rule: They never stay longer in any one place for fear that someone with a cell phone will alert killers that a soft target is in play. Sometimes the smallest things can expose them. Wearing a seatbelt in a car is a clear giveaway: Iraqis rarely use them.

The high-pitched paranoia is justified. During the past four years, members of the press corps have been beheaded, gunned down at close range, blown apart by car bombs and IEDs (improvised explosive devices), targeted for assassination and kidnapped for ransom. Some have been wounded or died alongside coalition troops during combat missions. Sometimes they have shown up in grainy videos, flanked by masked executioners, tearfully begging for their lives....

For the fourth consecutive year, Iraq in 2006 ranked as the world's deadliest spot for the media, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Since the invasion, 133 journalists and media support workers have been killed; 83 percent were locals, many with ties to Western media outlets. The Associated Press lost two Iraqi staffers in December and January. CPJ reports that for the first time, murder has overtaken crossfire as the leading cause of deaths...

Peter Osnos, who covered the war in Vietnam for the Washington Post, says Iraq is far riskier. "American journalists have never seen a war like this before--the extraordinary danger, the vast expense and the extraordinary set of circumstances. Every inch of terrain is a potential battlefield," says Osnos, now a senior fellow for media at the Century Foundation as well as founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books. "People underestimate how dangerous it is."

There's a lot more to this story so be sure and read the whole thing.

Italy creates market for hostages

The New York Times reports that in exchange for a journalist held hostage in "lawless southern Afghanistan" as the Times put it, Italy admitted that it traded five Taliban prisoners.

As the Times writes, this "appears to be the first time prisoners have been openly exchanged for a hostage in the wars that the United States and its allies are fighting there and in Iraq." The move was criticized from Washington to London to Amsterdam.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists, and we don’t advise others to do so either,” State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said, paraphrasing U.S. policy.

The U.S. and many other governments believe that by conceding to the demands of hostage takers, while one life may be saved, you effectively make hostage-taking profitable, and thus create a market.

As Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, expressed this idea, "When we create a situation where you can buy the freedom of Taliban fighters when you catch a journalist, then in the short term there will be no journalists anymore."