WHEN JOURNALISTS ARE ATTACKED
My good friends Matt Welch and Ken Layne have both taken a look at the weekend beating of reporter Robert Fisk at the hands of Afghan refugees. Both received drubbings from locals in more than one Middle European country, but Ken argues that the reporter should not be writing about himself, even if he's beaten. "I am no fan of Objective Journalism, but when you're covering a global event, you are not the story," Ken writes on his site. (My own husband, who was once targeted for a kidnapping and another time heard his Jeep blow up outside his hotel room, visibly recoils when he hears the cliché "I was covering the story and then I became the story.") But to pick a fight, Ken, I disagree. I think when journalists have been targeted for killing, when there has been an allegation of a bounty on journalists' heads, I think a mere beating becomes newsworthy. The beating should not be a substitute for writing the main story, but I think it should be done in addition. The Committee to Protect Journalists has a list of the recent attacks, detainments and killings of journalists.
» SWEDISH JOURNALIST KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
» FOUR JOURNALISTS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
- posted by Amy @ 12/11/2001 09:30:00 AM