Killing The Messenger: Journalists At Risk In Modern Warfare

Killing the Messenger: Journalists at Risk in Modern Warfare Herbert N. Foerstel PRAEGER Killing the Messenger Journalists at Risk in Modern Warfare Herbert N. Foerstel Foreword by Danny Schechter Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Foerstel, Herbert N. Killing the messenger : journalists at risk in modern warfare / Herbert N. Foerstel ; foreword by Danny Schechter. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98786-8 1. War—Press coverage. 2. War correspondents—United States—Biography. I. Title. PN4784.W37F62 2006 070.4'333—dc22 2005034112 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2006 by Herbert N. Foerstel All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005034112 ISBN: 0-275-98786-8 First published in 2006 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 vii xiii The Dangers of Reporting Conventional War 1 Journalism and the New Face of War 21 Personal Stories of Abduction, Torture, and Death 49 Chapter 4 Why Do They Hate Us? 81 Chapter 5 Protecting Journalists at a Cost to Newsgathering Chapter 3 Notes Selected Bibliography Index 115 137 153 155 Foreword Groucho Marx famously once said that he would never join a club that would have him as a member. Herb Foerstel, author of Killing the Messenger, might agree, but he would feel comfortable joining London’s Frontline Club, located, appropriately enough, across the street from a hospital and down the block from a train station with the quickest connection in town to the airport. There, in a small building, is a club dedicated to and used by foreign correspondents, the heroes (and cads) that Foerstel’s new book discusses in great detail and with a well-informed and nuanced argument. In the club’s main room there are the photos of media martyrs, the men and women who lost their lives in the service of reportage abroad. There are artifacts and memorabilia, including license plates from Sarajevo, T-shirts with bullet holes, and posters singing the praises of the stories they covered: Pinochet, Arafat, Khomeini, and Mandela. This is a museum of the present, chronicling the ongoing challenge of keeping the world informed about itself. Foerstel is concerned about this challenge, not just as a writer immersed in press issues, but also as a citizen concerned with peace and justice in a world of too many wars. In treating the lives and issues associated with this dangerous enterprise, he brings a set of values and passions that, alas, are often missing in the work he investigates. He is keenly aware that something dramatic is happening to the nature of war and its coverage. Reporters are no longer passive observers, if they ever were, but are often engaged participants. Sometimes their media wars become part of the larger conflicts they observe, often inflaming them. And most certainly, they are more at risk than ever, targeted by military forces and terrorists alike. “Has war reporting changed,” he asks, “making journalism a viii • FOREWORD second front in the war against terrorism? How has the scope and objectivity of war reporting been compromised by the dangers on the beat?” These are good questions, an