Grim View of Iraq Dangers in Survey of Journalists

[ProSense]

Grim View of Iraq Dangers in Survey of Journalists

Photos of slain Iraqi journalists stacked in a Baghdad hotel in March. Since the war began, 124 journalists have been killed.

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: November 28, 2007

In a newly released survey, American journalists in Iraq give harrowing accounts of their work, with the great majority saying that colleagues have been kidnapped or killed and that most parts of Baghdad are too dangerous for them to visit.

The survey was conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an arm of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington. Of the 111 journalists who participated, half had spent at least nine months in Iraq, and three-quarters had experience reporting on other armed conflicts. Most of the journalists were surveyed in October, one of the least deadly months in Baghdad in recent years.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents said that most or all of their street reporting was done by local citizens, yet 87 percent said that it was not safe for their Iraqi reporters to openly carry notebooks, cameras or anything else that identified them as journalists. Two-thirds of respondents said they worried that their reliance on local reporters — including many with little or no background in journalism — could produce inaccurate or incomplete news reports.

The Americans also voiced serious concerns about how effectively they were able to do their own jobs. Most respondents said that the media did not do a good job covering the lives of ordinary Iraqis or reconstruction efforts, simply because those lines of reporting could be deadly.

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“The grimness of the results surprised me,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project. “It shows how difficult and extraordinarily dangerous telling this story is.”

more

Situation Normal in Baghdad

Americans happier about Iraq: poll (Mission Accomplished!)

On edit:

Journalists killed
January 1, 1992-October 18, 2007:

Top 20 countries

1. Iraq: 120
2. Algeria: 60
3. Russia: 47
4. Colombia: 40
5. Philippines: 32
6. India: 22
7. Somalia: 20
8. Bosnia: 19
Turkey: 19
10. Rwanda: 16
Sierra Leone: 16
Tajikistan: 16
Afghanistan: 16
14. Brazil: 15
15. Pakistan: 14
16. Mexico: 13
17. Bangladesh: 12
18. Sri Lanka: 11
19. Angola: 8
Yugoslavia: 8

[yellowcanine]

1. BUT the surge is working! Sean Hannity said so just last night. So this cannot be right.

The Democrats should just admit that they were wrong on Iraq and George Bush was right already.
:sarcasm:

[snappyturtle]

2. When I last saw Michael Ware on teevee he looked as if he had

seen a ghost....appeared very "drawn". For weeks now it seems to me very little news has trickled out of Iraq via the MSM....I think all we get is from the government.