Is reporting in Iraq still possible?
Posted: Friday, May 18, 2007 12:09 PM
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Baghdad, Iraq
By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
Baghdad's dwindling press corps learned today that two of our own were brutally murdered, apparently for doing nothing more than their jobs.
ABC News announced that its Baghdad-based cameraman Alaa Uldeen Aziz, 33, and soundman Saif Laith Yousuf, 26, were ambushed yesterday while driving home in western Baghdad. Their bodies were discovered today. Iraqi police told us they'd apparently been tortured before they were killed, and then shot in the head execution style.
I was always impressed with Alaa. He was smart, well connected and savvy. I liked him so much I tried to hire him for NBC News about a year ago, but he didn't want to come. He liked his job at ABC. They respected him, he told me, and felt he was a critical part of their Baghdad-based newsgathering team.
But why kill Alaa and his soundman Saif? Why have insurgents in Iraq murdered 102 journalists and kidnapped 48 since 2003, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, making Iraq the deadliest conflict ever to cover?
Technology has changed role of reporters
It used to be that militant groups appreciated reporters and wanted to use us to tell their stories. They wanted to talk to the press to counter the statements of whatever government or political faction they were fighting. Now from Gaza to Afghanistan, journalists are considered legitimate targets.
I have a theory that technology is in part to blame. Once militant groups started posting their statements and videos on the Internet, they no longer needed us. Today all they need is a DV camera and an Internet connection to assure that their message will be posted as they intended, and not filtered through a reporter.
I get it. Why risk meeting a journalist you think is probably a spy anyway, if you can get your message out on your own? But in Iraq, insurgents are hunting down and killing us. In Baghdad, life seems to truly mean nothing. This ancient country, one of the earliest civilizations on the planet, seems to have lost any grip on humanity and rationality.
Last week the neighbor of one of our engineers in Baghdad was killed. He was a Shiite living in a Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad. But he wasn't just murdered for living in what is now "the wrong" neighborhood. Holes were drilled into his chest. His ears and penis were cut off.
"He was just an old man," one of our staff told me.
For several years, Iraqi reporters have been telling us stories like this one from neighborhoods in Baghdad where Western reporters wouldn't stand a chance of surviving. Most foreign journalists in Baghdad still go out reporting everyday, but many now travel with security teams befitting the head of a small third world country.
Local reporters - our eyes and ears
Our Iraqi reporters go out alone. Most prefer it that way, assuming that as locals they can operate under the insurgents' radar. Many of our reporters have moved into our bureaus, basically living at the office. Others want to stay outside to be closer to their families. Outside, they lie about what they do, telling neighbors they are unemployed or drive taxis. Deception is their protection.
Our local reporters, translators and cameramen are not just our friends and colleagues; they are our eyes and ears. Without them, the world would have no idea what happens in so many Baghdad neighborhoods today in the grips of warring Shiite and Sunni militias.
Most Iraqi journalists do it because they believe the world should know what is happening in their country. But after four years in Iraq, nearly all of the local reporters I know want to leave the country. It's not surprising why, but it would be a tremendous loss. If Iraqis cannot report in Baghdad, Westerners don't stand a chance.
