Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
Several news organizations will cover elections from abroad
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
PARIS: Threatened with kidnap or death, European journalists are reducing coverage of the Iraqi election process to a strict minimum. Both the French and the Italian governments have formally advised journalists not to travel to the violence-wracked country because of the serious risks and critical security situation. The warnings followed the disappearance of Florence Aubenas, 43, a senior correspondent for the French daily Liberation, who has not been seen since she left her hotel with her interpreter on Wednesday last week. As a result, several French news outlets that had been planning to cover the elections scheduled for Jan. 30 said they were now thinking again.
Some had already stopped sending correspondents there after French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot were captured and held for four months before being released Dec. 21.?News editor?s point out that correspondent in Baghdad cannot leave their hotel rooms without incurring major risks.
The United States is organizing military escorts so that journalists can cover the election, but this also would restrict their freedom of action. Leonard Doyle, foreign editor of The Independent in London, said, “we make a big effort not to do what you might call ‘hotel journalism,’ and we make a very big effort not to sub-contract work to local Iraqi journalists – we think that’s basically unfair. It’s a risk to them. We carry the same risk.” Many newspapers have pulled out journalists based in Iraq, or at best send experienced correspondents for only brief periods.
Those based in the capital do their best to merge into the background, like Germany ‘s ‘Stern’ magazine correspondent, who speaks fluent Arabic and has grown a beard, or Stephen Farrell, The Times Middle East correspondent, who wears both a beard and a keffiyah. Despite such precautions, Farrell said he “almost never” appears on the street unless he’s on the way to a meeting pre-arranged with Iraqis who can be trusted.
News outlets in neighboring rely on reports sent by Turkish-speaking citizens of Iraq or send reporters to the northern part of the country, but stay away from Baghdad and the so-called Sunni Triangle. Like many news organizations, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Munich has moved its correspondent out of Baghdad but kept him in the Gulf region. The German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ covers Iraq from Cairo.
The three main Russian news agencies, Interfax, Itar-Tass and Ria Novosti, have had no correspondents on the ground for some time, and do not intend to send anyone to cover the elections.
Those who remain in Baghdad have learned to take extraordinary precautions, like traveling in separate automobiles, keeping in touch via walkie-talkies using code words and taking a backup car for security. Yet the bottom line, said Farrell is that “if the mainstream Sunni resistance wanted journalists dead, we would all have been dead or kidnapped months ago. And the only reason that we’re operating is that they want us to operate.”
13-1-2005
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