In 2006, 55 journalists were killed in the line of duty around the world, a stunning 32 in Iraq alone. Democracy Now! talked to Frank Smyth of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
FRANK SMYTH: The most troubling finding is, number one, that the death rate in Iraq is increasing, rising to 32, which is a record so far since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. And in addition, 28 of the 32 journalists killed in Iraq in 2006, were outright murdered by insurgent or other irregular forces, and almost all of them were Iraqis. So we started seeing murders a few years ago in Iraq of journalists, but now 61% of journalists being killed in Iraq have been murdered. And that's a disturbing and rising trend.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I also noticed in your report that as you mentioned, overwhelmingly most of the journalists killed were Iraqis. Does that mean that basically there's been an enormous pullout of foreign journalists from the coverage or is it that the Iraqis are being targeted more?
FRANK SMYTH: I think it's both. I think you have less foreign correspondents operating in Iraq, and those that are operating are rarely venturing beyond the Green Zone areas, near the Green Zone, to avoid being kidnapped, as was the case with Jill Carroll. At the same time you see an increasing number of journalists being targeted merely for doing their work, whether they are working for U.S.-backed media, western media, or independent Iraqi media that's emerged in the past few years.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And I'd like to ask, in terms of those Iraqi journalists who were killed, were most of them working for Iraqi news organizations, or were these a lot of Iraqi journalists who have since been hired by foreign news organizations?
FRANK SMYTH: Most of them in 2006 were working for Iraqi news organizations.
AMY GOODMAN: The number of western journalists of course in Iraq has gone down. With the dangers in the last few years, though, there have been also a number killed by U.S. troops. Well, like, with what Reuters described as one of the leading conflict cameramen of our time, Mazen Dana, killed by U.S. troops outside Abu Ghraib. Then there was the Al Jazeera reporter Tarik Ayoub, the U.S. military shelled the area around the Al Jazeera office where he was on the roof. He was killed. What kind of tone do you think that set early on, as we lead up to this point where the bulk of the deaths are as a result of, well, you write in the Committee to Protect Journalists report, insurgents?
FRANK SMYTH: The incidences involving U.S. forces, in particular the shooting of Mazen Dana, was especially disturbing because he was shot at relatively short range in a situation where called into question the rules of engagement. We protested and asked for clarification from the Pentagon about that shooting in particular, and the Pentagon eventually did a comprehensive report and investigation of the shooting, which exonerated the soldiers involved. But the report, itself, encouraged the Pentagon to review its own rules of engagement so that U.S. forces would be made aware of the right and presence of journalists operating on the battlefield. And the Pentagon has never acknowledged whether or not it has followed its own recommendations. But we’ve sent a number of letters to former Secretary of State Rumsfeld and other officials, encouraging them to follow that report's recommendations and to make U.S. troops aware of the right and presence of journalists to operate on the battlefield. ...
AMY GOODMAN: Back on the issue of Russia. In the case of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist who was killed. The leading investigative journalist and critic of the state, specifically of president Vladimir Putin. Shot contract-style at her apartment October 7th. Can you talk more about that, and the holding of the state responsible?
FRANK SMYTH: Well, that was a case that remains under investigation--it's not uncommon--and it's unclear exactly what the motivation was. But certainly she did enterprising and groundbreaking work investigating abuses in Chechnya involving Russian and other forces. So we believe that her work in Chechnya may well be responsible for what led to perpetrators to then murder her. But that kind of gang-land style, mafia style assassination is quite common in Russia like it is in many other nations. And certainly, whether or not it involves security forces, is still unclear, but the problem is that very few of those kinds of murders of journalists in Russia, as in many other places, end up being resolved.
AMY GOODMAN: Frank Smyth, I wanted to ask you about a story that didn't get very much coverage this week. We heard a lot about one of the last acts of the UN Security Council imposing sanctions against Iran, but on the same day, last Saturday, the UN Security council approved an unprecedented resolution that condemned attacks on journalists and urged countries to protect journalists. Can you talk more about that act of the UN Security Council?
FRANK SMYTH: Yes, Amy, this was a resolution that was brought forward by the International Federation of Journalists, the Journalists Federation of Unions, the International News Safety Institute, of which the Committee to Protect Journalists that I work for is a member of, and also the European Broadcasters Union. And it was an effort to pass a resolution that would underscore the right and duty of journalists to be able to operate in armed conflicts, covering armed conflicts without fear of being targeted or victimized by state or other forces. And one of the most important parts of the UN resolution was to underscore in one of the operative paragraphs that broadcast facilities, that media facilities must be considered civilian entities and may not be considered military targets unless there is some specific reason to target them in a military manner. Coming in the wake of U.S. attacks involving Al Jazeera, the Kabul bureau in 2001 in Afghanistan that Ron Suskind reported about earlier this summer, was a deliberate attack--according to his sources which he did not name--on Al Jazeera. Coming in the wake of those kinds of attacks, this resolution in that particular language is very important and it underscores that, media outlets must be considered civilian entities and must not be targeted for military purposes.