{"id":228,"date":"2007-10-24T21:38:43","date_gmt":"2007-10-24T21:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=228"},"modified":"2007-11-06T21:58:37","modified_gmt":"2007-11-06T21:58:37","slug":"to-be-a-journalist-in-iraq-2-die-every-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/to-be-a-journalist-in-iraq-2-die-every-week\/","title":{"rendered":"To be a journalist in Iraq – 2 die every week"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago I met the founder of Globalegacy at The Frontline Club<\/a> in London.\u00a0 While waiting, Pranvera Shema kindly allowed me to work in the bar upstairs.\u00a0 I had been to correspondents’ clubs before, but here I was struck by the number of sad stories\u00a0 of journalists dying in the line of duty that covered the walls. So this from the NYT<\/a> is worth sharing, with thanks to journalists for fighting with pen and camera around the world:<\/p>\n

To Be A Journalist In Iraq<\/p>\n

The International Women\u2019s Media Foundation awarded its \u201ccourage in journalism awards\u201d yesterday to women who risk their lives covering the news. One award was given to six Iraqi women who work in the McClatchy Newspapers bureau in Baghdad, a job so dangerous that they cannot take the chance of being photographed, not even in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the six, Sahar Issa had a powerful message that we wanted to share with our readers:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be a journalist in violence-ridden Iraq today, ladies and gentlemen, is not a matter lightly undertaken. Every path is strewn with danger, every checkpoint, every question a direct threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery interview we conduct may be our last. So much is happening in Iraq. So much that is questionable. So much that we, as journalists, try to fathom and portray to the people who care to know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every society there is good and bad. Laws regulate the conduct of the society. My country is now lawless. Innocent blood is shed every day, seemingly without purpose. Hundreds of thousands have been killed for seemingly no reason. It is our responsibility to do our utmost to acquire the answers, to dig them up with our bare hands if we must.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that knowledge comes at a dear price, for since the war started, four and half years ago, an average of about one reporter and media assistant killed every week is something we have to live with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live double lives. None of our friends or relatives know what we do. My children must lie about my profession. They cannot under any circumstance boast of my accomplishments, and neither can I. Every morning, as I leave my home, I look back with a heavy heart, for I may not see it again \u2014 today may be the day that the eyes of an enemy will see me for what I am, a journalist, rather than the appropriately bewildered elderly lady who goes to look after ailing parents, across the river every day. Not for a moment can I let down my guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI smile as I give my children hugs and send them off to school; it\u2019s only after they turn their backs to me that my eyes fill to overflowing with the knowledge that they are just as much at risk as I am.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why continue? Why not put down my proverbial pen and sit back? It\u2019s because I\u2019m tired of being branded a terrorist: tired that a human life lost in my county is no loss at all. This is not the future I envision for my children. They are not terrorists, and their lives are not valueless. I have pledged my life \u2014 and much, much more, in an effort to open a window through which the good people in the international community may look in and see us for what we are, ordinary human beings with ordinary aspirations, and not what we have been portrayed to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllow me, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to reach out. Help us to build bridges of understanding and acceptance. Even though the war has cast a dark shadow upon your nation and mine \u2014 it is never too late.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago I met the founder of Globalegacy at The Frontline Club in London.\u00a0 While waiting, Pranvera Shema kindly allowed me to work in the bar upstairs.\u00a0 I had been to correspondents’ clubs before, but here I was struck by the number of sad stories\u00a0 of journalists dying in the line of …
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