Iraq’s Endangered Journalists

IN today’s Iraq, intellectuals are targets of a widespread, often ethnically driven campaign of murder. Many have fled their homes, or even the country, to protect their families. Doctors, engineers, professors and even teachers seek new careers in parts of Iraq where their ethnic or sectarian group is in the majority. But one class of professionals cannot escape the violence because its work is connected to it, and it is a group that has been attracted to, and cultivated by, the new Iraq. They are the news media workers. And I am one of them.

Under Saddam Hussein, I was a doctor. But I took up journalism in late 2003, when it was clear that the best jobs in post-Hussein Iraq were those in the news media. Building a free press in Iraq was one of America’s greatest achievements. When the American-led coalition installed itself in the Green Zone, it created the Combined International Press Center, where American soldiers issued press passes to Iraqis and Westerners alike.

Just like American reporters, we could embed ourselves with the United States Army and we could attend coalition press conferences, where we addressed critical questions to American officials as well as to Iraqi officials. Many of the biggest stories were either written by Iraqis or reported by them.

With American encouragement, Iraq produced a generation of young journalists who are decades ahead of their counterparts elsewhere in the region. Those who had the opportunity to work for Western publications or broadcast companies advanced the furthest, but many journalists working for local news media organizations also catapulted ahead in their careers. The two groups complemented each other, succeeding in the midst of violence and confusion to reveal the hidden atrocities in our country to Iraqis and the world.

In the last year, however, as successive short-term governments have taken power in Baghdad, American support for the Iraqi news media has waned. In May the United States ambassador announced the transfer of the International Media Center, which has served as a headquarters for the international and local news media, into the hands of the new Iraqi government, which is dominated by militias and regards the news media as akin to the insurgency, something that it must defeat and suppress. In mid-July, the Iraqi prime minister threatened to close any news media outlet that insufficiently supports the Iraqi government in its fight against sectarian violence. I fear that if this government survives, the press in Iraq will become similar to that in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Syria.

CinemATL Magazine

CinemATL Magazine: "
First up was War & Truth, which was preceded by the short Journey into Sunset. Unfortunately, due to Atlanta's lovely traffic, I only caught maybe the last 10 minutes of the short, but what I saw was extremely powerful. The short tells the story of Don Cheadle's journey to Africa, where he saw first-hand the suffering that is going in Sudan and Chad. I really wish I caught the beginning of this short, and I can say that it needs to be sought out and seen.

Likewise, War & Truth is a documentary that needs to be seen. The topic is journalist in war time, and how wars are covered for the civilians at home. Disturbing images tell as story that we don't see on the nightly news, and director Michael Samstag and producer Debbie Etchison need to be commended for the bold choices they make. It's not easy to watch this documentary, but that's the point. The true horrors of war are sanitized by the time the news reaches us Stateside. But the film doesn%u2019t preach, it lets the reporters tell their stories, and you'll gain a new appreciation of what these journalists go through on the front line."

CinemATL Magazine - News & Notes: Journalists get their due in "War and Truth"

CinemATL Magazine - News & Notes: Journalists get their due in "War and Truth": "More than 2,000 journalists risked their lives embedded with Coalition forces on the front lines in the war in Iraq, but not everything made the news. The documentary War and Truth brings to light things that weren't seen by the general public.

A journalist covers a story in Iraq in 'War and Trurth.' (courtesy Debbie Locker Etchison)War and Truth producer Debbie Locker Etchison earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Auburn University and served reporting stints for UPI and a daily newspaper before becoming an award-winning screenwriter and film producer. Etchison, who was living in Atlanta at the time, began the documentary in 2003 at the onset of the ground war.


She was amazed at the number of imbedded journalists who were heading to Iraq. 'It was important for me to talk about the dangers that reporters face, and what it really takes from them for us to get the stories,' Etchison said.


Director/producer Michael Samstag of Knoxville came to the project after being introduced to Etchison while working on a Harry Potter DVD at Crawford Communications. 'She pitched the idea to me and we've been working together on the film since March of 2003,' Samstag said."

Creative Loafing Atlanta: Cover Story: Curt Holman's festival f8ik,avorites

Creative Loafing - Creative Loafing Atlanta: Cover: Cover Story: Curt Holman's festival favorites: "WAR AND TRUTH 3 stars. Michael Samstag's slick documentary initially offers a modern history of combat journalists, from World War II reporters to the 'embedded' broadcasters of the current war in Iraq. The interviewees serve as evocative storytellers and the film contains shockingly grisly images of wartime realities, from the South Pacific to Baghdad, that photographers knew would never make the evening news but still deserved public showings.

Having paid an eloquent homage to the dedication of wartime reporters, the film then tries to argue the journalistic shortcomings in reporting the Iraq War. However passionate, this side of War and Truth never presents as powerful an argument as its firsthand accounts of reporting under fire.

Fri., June 16, 4:45 p.m., at GSU Speakers Auditorium."

2006 Atlanta Film Festival

2006 Atlanta Film Festival: "Run time: 75 min. | Director: Michael Samstag

War and Truth chronicles the history of embedded journalists from WWII to today. When the United States went to war with Iraq, more than two thousand journalists charged across the Iraqi desert to document history and send the story home. Not everything they saw made it into the newspaper or onto the television news. The film details the courage and frustrations of journalists who risk their lives on the front lines. It dares to bring to light the images you won't see on the news and explores the true story of what it really means when a nation goes to war."

War Unvarnished: Baghdad ER by Ron Steinman- The Digital Journalist

War Unvarnished: Baghdad ER by Ron Steinman- The Digital Journalist:

"The film is strong; its reality, potent. Blood and severed limbs are everywhere, so much so that without any effort you can the smell the blood on the sheets and on the floors. Seeing the hospital staff cleanse the operating room of blood, gore and severed limbs, before a new set of wounded arrives, brings home the horror of war better than a firefight. Even in war, the OR must be pristine before the residue of violence settles in to become a permanent fixture of the hospital.

"

DART CENTER for Journalism & Trauma

DART CENTER for Journalism & Trauma

Viewing graphic depictions of war—such as those that appear in the HBO special "Baghdad ER"—can trigger real problems for veterans and others who have survived traumatic events. Military psychiatrists at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress have released fact sheets to help military servicemembers, veterans and families who are considering watching graphic movies.

DART CENTER for Journalism & Trauma

DART CENTER for Journalism & Trauma

Viewing graphic depictions of war—such as those that appear in the HBO special "Baghdad ER"—can trigger real problems for veterans and others who have survived traumatic events. Military psychiatrists at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress have released fact sheets to help military servicemembers, veterans and families who are considering watching graphic movies.

Dying to tell the story? More than you know

Dying to tell the story? More than you know : "NEW YORK - Imagine the uproar if the American public suddenly learned the actual number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq was 66 percent higher than previously reported.

In fact, such a disparity exists between what is widely reported and the true loss of life in Iraq, but the discrepancy centers around the number of reported journalist deaths in Iraq - the deadliest war ever for news organization employees.

Few people, even among journalists, know how many news organization staffers have paid the ultimate price in Iraq since the conflict began in 2003."

American Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq - Yahoo! News

American Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq - Yahoo! News: "BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen kidnapped a female American journalist and killed her Iraqi translator Saturday in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

Maj. Falah Mohamadawi said the translator told police before he died that the abduction took place when he and the journalist were heading to meet Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front, in the Adel section of the city."

Guest Contribution: Danny Schechter: Mediaocracy 2006

Guest Contribution: Danny Schechter: Mediaocracy 2006

Mediaocracy 2006: Out with the Old, In With the New