Iraq: more journalists killed "than during Vietnam war"

Original editorsweblog.org link: Iraq: more journalists killed "than during Vietnam war"

Thursday, September 1, 2005

Iraq: more journalists killed "than during Vietnam war" - watchdogs
According to Peter Feuilherade' analysis (BBC Monitoring Media Services), "The number of journalists and support staff killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003 now exceeds the toll among the media during two decades of fighting in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975, according to separate reports from two international journalists' organizations.

The Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said in a press release on 29 August: "Eighty-one members of the news media have died since the war began in March 2003, according to figures compiled by the Institute. More than half - 50 - were murdered by insurgents and other unidentified gunmen and bombers. American firepower is the next most significant cause of death. There is no firm evidence that US forces have deliberately targeted the news media. But there is widespread suspicion that American troops do not take adequate precautions to try to ensure the safety of journalists. None of the other Coalition forces has killed any journalists."

The Paris-based organization Reporters Sans Frontieres on 28 August reported that Khalid was the 66th journalist or media assistant to be killed in Iraq since the conflict started in March 2003. "A total of 63 journalists were killed in the Vietnam war, which lasted from 1955 to 1975," RSF added.

The International Federation of Journalists, meanwhile, has sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan calling on UN leaders to establish an independent inquiry into the killings of media staff at the hands of US and Coalition forces.

"The number of unexplained media killings by US military personnel is intolerable," said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary. "Media organizations and journalists' families face a wall of silence and an unfeeling bureaucracy that refuses to give clear and credible answers to questions."

"The toll is appalling, but the fact that 18 of these deaths are at the hands of US soldiers and that there are still questions to be answered more than two years after some of the incidents is particularly shocking," said White.

... Another media watchdog, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), puts the media death toll in Iraq at 74, comprising 53 journalists and 21 media workers.

A CPJ press release on 29 August said in part: "The circumstances surrounding several of these deaths suggest indifference on the part of US forces to the presence of civilians, including members of the press, according to CPJ's analysis of the killings."

Source: BBC Monitoring

Wounded ABC crew hospitalized in Germany

Original cnn.com link: Wounded ABC crew hospitalized in Germany

Anchor, cameraman suffered 'very significant' injuries in Iraq
Monday, January 30, 2006; Posted: 8:50 a.m. EST (13:50 GMT)

LANDSTUHL, Germany (CNN) -- ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman suffered "very significant injuries" but are in stable condition a day after they were wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the commander of the U.S. military hospital said Monday.

Woodruff, the 44-year-old co-anchor of "World News Tonight," and cameraman Doug Vogt, 46, arrived in Germany on Monday morning to receive treatment for wounds they suffered Sunday near Taji, Iraq, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

Col. Brian Gamble of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center said he could not give details on their injuries until doctors had consulted with their families.

"They are under the care of our trauma and critical care team that we have up there, undergoing further evaluation, consultation with specialty consultation," he said. "... the next few days and weeks really will be important to determine how they do."

Landstuhl is the largest U.S. military hospital outside the United States, but Gamble said the goal was to send Woodruff and Vogt to a medical facility in the United States.

Both journalists were listed in serious but stable condition Sunday after both sustained head injuries, the network said. Woodruff also suffered shrapnel injuries to his body, and Vogt has a broken shoulder, ABC said.

ABC News producer Kate Felsen said she spoke with both men. "Doug was conscious, and I was able to reassure him that I was getting them care," she said. "I spoke to Bob, also."

The two men had been embedded with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. At the time of the blast, they were traveling with U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the lead of an eight-vehicle convoy of U.S. armored Humvees, ABC said.

The network said the men -- wearing helmets and body armor -- were standing, videotaping a log of their trip, in the rear hatch of the vehicle when the bomb was detonated, apparently by a hard-wire connection. The blast was followed by small-arms fire from three directions, ABC said.

An Iraqi soldier was also wounded in the attack, Iraqi officials said.

Within 37 minutes of the attack, the men had been taken by helicopter to a combat-support hospital in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone, the network said. (Watch the challenges of treating wounded at military hospital -- 3:29)

There, doctors determined the men needed surgery, and they were taken -- again by helicopter -- 50 miles north of Baghdad to the U.S. military hospital in Balad. The hospital is the most technologically advanced in Iraq.

Experienced journalists

Last month, Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas were named to replace the late Peter Jennings as "World News Tonight" anchors. They started the job this month. Vargas anchored the news Sunday night. (Full story)

Woodruff, an attorney and former law professor, began his career in journalism as a translator for CBS News in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he was embedded with Marines on the front lines.

Vogt has been with ABC News for 15 years and has covered global hot spots from Bosnia to Gaza to Iran.

Both men were experienced in war zones, ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz said.

The White House has offered to help "in any way we can," spokesman Trent Duffy said.

"It is terrible news, and we are praying for full and speedy recovery," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them."

Reporting from the Iraqi war zone is a dangerous proposition. According to Reporters Without Borders, 79 journalists and assistants have been killed in Iraq since the United States invaded in March 2003. Two CNN employees -- translator Duraid Mohammad and driver Yasser Khatib -- were killed two years ago.

CNN's Chris Burns contributed to this report.

Robertson suggests God smote Sharon

Original cnn.com link: Robertson suggests God smote Sharon

Evangelist links Israeli leader's stroke to 'dividing God's land'
Friday, January 6, 2006; Posted: 5:33 a.m. EST (10:33 GMT)

(CNN) -- Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

"He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,'" Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, "The 700 Club."

"God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'" he said.

Robertson's show airs on the ABC Family cable network and claims about 1 million viewers daily.

Sharon, 77, clung to life in a Jerusalem hospital Thursday after surgery to treat a severe stroke, his doctors said.

The prime minister, who withdrew Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank last summer over heated objections from his own Likud Party, was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after doctors operated to stop the bleeding in his brain.

In Washington, President Bush offered praise for Sharon in a speech on Thursday.

"We pray for his recovery," Bush said. "He's a good man, a strong man. A man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people, and a man who had a vision for peace. May God bless him."

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, compared Robertson's remarks to the overheated rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Full story)

He called the comments "outrageous" and said they were not something to expect "from any of our friends."

"He is a great friend of Israel and a great friend of Prime Minister Sharon himself, so I am very surprised," Ayalon told CNN.

Robertson, 75, founded the Christian Coalition and in 1988 failed in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He last stirred controversy in August, when he called for the assassination of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez. (Full story)

Robertson later apologized, but still compared Chavez to Hitler and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the process.

The same month, the Anti-Defamation League criticized Robertson for warning that God would "bring judgment" against Israel for its withdrawal from Gaza, which it had occupied since the 1967 Mideast war.

Robertson said Thursday that Sharon was "a very likable person, and I am sad to see him in this condition."

He linked Sharon's health problems to the 1995 assassination of Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo peace accords that granted limited self-rule to Palestinians.

"It was a terrible thing that happened, but nevertheless, now he's dead," Robertson said.

Rabin was gunned down by a religious student opposed to the Oslo accords. The killer, Yigal Amir, admitted to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison.

Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized Robertson's comments Thursday, saying the televangelist "has a political agenda for the entire world."

"He seems to think God is ready to take out any world leader who stands in the way of that agenda," Lynn said in a written statement.

"A religious leader should not be making callous political points while a man is struggling for his life," he said. "I'm appalled."

Ralph Neas, president of liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, said "it is astonishing that Pat Robertson still wields substantial influence" in the Republican Party.

"Once again, Pat Robertson leaves us speechless with his insensitivity and arrogance," Neas said in a written statement.

According to The Associated Press, Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts said of people who criticized the comments: "What they're basically saying is, 'How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?'"

"This is what the word of God says," Watts told the AP. "This is nothing new to the Christian community."