FOUR JOURNALISTS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
Colleagues today identified the bodies of four journalists who were pulled from a convoy headed for Kabul. Two Reuters journalists were among those executed: Harry Burton, an Australian television cameraman, and Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer. Also killed were Spanish journalist Julio Fuentes of El Mundo and Italian journalist Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere della Sera. Three other reports were slain there a week ago: French radio reporters Johanne Sutton, 34, and Pierre Billaud, 31, and German journalist Volker Handloik, 40, a freelance working for Stern magazine. There are numerous published accounts of the latest attacks. Reports can be found in the Washington Post, AP, Boston Globe, LA Times, New York Daily News, CNN, The Independent, Irish Times, Yahoo! full coverage links and the BBC. The New York Times report concludes with the story about the AP reporter who passed the same "checkpoint" minutes before the slain journalists arrived. He yelled at his driver not to stop for the armed men, who he believes are the same ones who later killed his colleagues. There is also a report from an ABC reporter who canceled his own trip based on the potential danger.

Not lacking in unsettling coincidence, the Committee to Protect Journalists tonight is holding its annual dinner to recognize journalists who risk their lives in dangerous places. One of the five recipients of the International Press Freedom Awards will not be in attendance; he's still in jail.
- posted by Amy @ 11/20/2001 10:20:00 AM