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JOURNALISTS TRAVELING WITH THE TROOPS
By Lauren Woods
Journalism is becoming more and more of a risky business for traveling correspondents.
In 2002 twenty reporters were killed, compared to 37 in 2001. The decline is partly due to an easing of military conflict around the world, but the trend may reverse this year with the war in Iraq. The number of journalists killed in 2002 dropped to its lowest level in 17 years but those imprisoned climbed for the second year in a row, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Over 600 American and foreign reporters are traveling with the troops in the battlefield in and around Iraq. This is the first time that journalists have had this much access to war. The Pentagon made this decision to station reporters with troops and trained these journalists extensively to handle the dangers of battle.
Tim Sullivan, 28, who works for People Magazine agrees that many Americans are hesitant of the idea to embed journalists with troops during this war.
“It’s great to document this event and be able to get pictures and footage of this historic event,” Sullivan said, “but it is a war and we must not forget its dangerous enough for the soldiers we don’t need more American journalists running around getting in the way and being killed or captured by the enemy. The Armed Forces have a job to do, this around the clock coverage by these journalists is a little excessive.”
However Victoria Clarke, assistant secretary of defense and Pentagon spokesperson received positive reviews from the news media for being the number one advocate of placing journalists with troops on the battlefield. The military also has given good reviews of the media coverage of the troops so far.
So far three journalists have been killed during the War in Iraq. An Australian cameraman died in a suicide blast, a British reporter was shot during battle and a landmine killed a cameraman for the BBC. Four American journalists were held prisoner in Iraq for a week for unknown reasons before being released. These instances bring back memories of the death of Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.
Helen Ullio of WNBC think this kind of journalistic travel is just too risky in a time of war.
“I just don’t see the need for this kind of reportage, it just has become so dangerous,” Ullio said. “ I understand the ratings competition and such but losing an innocent journalist just trying to do his job during this war is just terrible, there’s just no need to put these reporters in harms way.”
In a press conference, Clarke defended the Pentagon’s decision to station reporters with troops.
“We think it’s the right thing to do,” Clarke said.