Special Report
Permission to Fire: CPJ investigates the attack on the Palestine Hotel
May 27, 2003
New York, February 25, 2003—In late February, the Bush administration appeared poised to launch a full-scale military assault against Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein. Today, hundreds of journalists have traveled to Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, and Turkey to prepare for the anticipated story.
CPJ will monitor these global developments and will focus its advocacy on ensuring that journalists covering any possible conflict in the Middle East are able to work freely and safely. At CPJ, we believe that journalists play a crucial role by providing the public and policy-makers with the information needed to understand events and make decisions.
Journalists are especially critical in conflicts because they are often the only civilians present on the battlefield. In light of that, CPJ encourages members of the media to review our safety handbook, titled On Assignment: Covering Conflict Safely and to contact us with any concerns regarding press freedom abuses.
For many journalists, the recent conflict in Afghanistan is a stark reminder of the risks involved. In 2001, eight reporters were killed in a 16-day period while covering the U.S. military response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Along with the bloodshed, members of the media encountered an array of restrictions on their ability to report. The Taliban barred most of the foreign press from areas of the country under their control; and the U.S. military provided very limited access to journalists covering the military campaign and on occasion curtailed journalists' movements and censored or intimidated those who tried to report developments on the ground.
The dozens of reporters and photojournalists now hunkered down in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, face a familiar gauntlet of restrictions. For years, foreign journalists have chafed at tight limits imposed by Iraqi authorities. Government "minders" shadow journalists and inhibit reporting, and Saddam Hussein's notorious police state brooks no dissent in the state-controlled media.
Although safety conditions may be relatively good for journalists in Iraq at the moment, the situation could change quickly in the event of war. During the 1991 Gulf War, four journalists were killed in the line of duty. One of them, free-lance photographer Gad Gross, was executed by Iraqi troops after they recaptured the northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish rebels. Iraqi forces detained several other journalists.
Today, some editors and journalists fear that those reporting from Baghdad could be used as "human shields" or taken hostage by the Iraqi regime. Random violence against journalists similar to what occurred in Afghanistan two years ago poses a serious threat, as does banditry and unrest caused by the chaos that may ensue should the Hussein regime collapse. And then there are worries that Saddam Hussein might use chemical or biological weapons, which would not only jeopardize the local population but also those covering the front lines.
Following the shock of journalists' deaths in Afghanistan—and in anticipation of possible dangers in Iraq—major international news organizations have prepared for a host emergencies, including the prospect of biochemical attacks. Many outlets have sent their staff to hostile-environment training courses.
Journalists reporting from inside Iraq must also contend with the potential danger from U.S. bombs and missiles. Qatar's 24-hour news channel Al-Jazeera will be among those broadcasting out of Baghdad, and the destruction of the station's bureau in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, by U.S. missiles in November 2001 has fueled anxiety among its staff about their safety.
Correspondents and their editors will be watching the Pentagon closely to see how much freedom U.S. troops will tolerate. In recent conflicts—Grenada, Panama, the Gulf War, and Afghanistan—U.S. officials have carefully managed the flow of information, restricting access to news events and in some cases employing censorship. More than 10 years ago, during the 1991 Gulf War, officials instituted a "pool" system that barred journalists from battles without a military escort and entailed rigorous prior censorship of all news and photographs.
This time, the Pentagon has said it will accommodate the press by allowing reporters the most access to front-line American troops since the Vietnam War. Officials have formulated a detailed plan to "embed" more than 500 reporters with U.S. troops in and around the battlefield. [Review the military's embedding guidelines and the Coalition Forces Land Component Command Ground Rules Agreement].
Embed "slots" have already been allotted to various U.S. and international news organizations, who in turn have tapped their reporters to fill them in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Gulf. Journalists' reports will not be censored, officials say, but recently released ground rules appear to provide some pre-screening and censorship of reports. There will also likely be delays in filing stories in order to protect operational security. (The Pentagon has indicated that these delays will be minimal and used to prevent real-time reporting on the launching of military attacks or troops preparing to engage the enemy, for example.)
This change in approach toward the media appears aimed, at least in part, at improving the military's strained relationship with the press during conflict, ensuring positive coverage of the military's endeavors, and giving the military the upper hand in any "information war" that may ensue during an attack on Iraq by having reporters counter negative news about troop activities, such as reports about civilian casualties. The embedding scheme could also be viewed as a plan to control journalists by keeping them close to troops, who can restrict the press's movement and ability to report. In the end, this type of control could result in one-dimensional and uncritical reporting on U.S. troops.
The bigger question is, will journalists working outside the "embed" system be able to move in Iraq freely once troops begin a ground attack? Thus far, U.S. officials have offered no convincing guarantees that such "unilateral" reporting, or reports by non-embedded journalists, will proceed without interference.
Beyond obstacles on the battlefield, the specter of media crackdowns in countries across the region looms. During the first Gulf War, several states clamped down on dissent in the media. The Turkish government, sensitive about coverage of the use of its airbase by coalition aircraft, interrupted CNN broadcasts of stories that touched on Turkey's role in the war. Syrian authorities arrested writers who expressed public support for Iraq, and the Saudi government—whose local press failed to even mention the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990—barred several foreign publications from distribution in the country.
Already, signs of such sensitivity are apparent. In December 2002, the Syrian government arrested Ibrahim Hemaidi, the Damascus bureau chief for the respected daily Al-Hayat, because he penned an article reporting that the Syrian government was preparing for a possible influx of Iraqi refugees in the event of a U.S. attack on Iraq. He remains in prison. Kuwaiti officials have discussed instituting new restrictive press legislation given the heightened security situation in the country. These concerns appear to have been alleviated in recent days, but observers fear that other countries may follow suit if or when war erupts.
Press Freedom: General
CPJ's Attacks on the Press in 2001
Annual Iraq summary
CPJ's Attacks on the Press in 2001
Annual United States summary
CPJ's Attacks on the Press in 2000
Annual Iraq summary
CPJ's Attacks on the Press in 1999
Annual Iraq summary
Iraq Press Freedom Archive
"Iraq: Rules of the Game," EPN World Reporter, January 10, 2003
During a career that has taken him across three continents of the world, French freelancer Jean Michel Vernochet has become an authority on Arab-Muslim affairs. In the coming months he intends to return to Baghdad, a city that he visits regularly, and, as the tension mounts in anticipation of a U.S. assault, he offers World Reporter readers a valuable insight into succeeding as a foreign correspondent in Iraq.
"Tragedy in Iraq," Village Voice, May 14, 1991
CPJ Washington, D.C., representative and free-lance reporter Frank Smyth's account of the1991 execution of photographer Gad Gross in northern Iraq.
Foreign Media Access
"Some Journalists Will go it alone in Iraq," Editor and Publisher, March 12, 2003
Ask Jeffrey Fleishman of the Los Angeles Times if he wishes that he were among the hundreds of reporters embedded with U.S. military troops and the veteran scribe doesn't mince words. "I'm glad I'm not," he said during a satellite-phone interview from northern Iraq, where he's been assigned for two months. "I like the freedom of movement and the choice to see the story from the middle."
"Pentagon Adds 100 More slots for Reporters," Editor and Publisher, March 11, 2003
The Pentagon is offering at least 100 more slots for journalists to be embedded with troops in the Persian Gulf this week, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, bringing the number of newspeople traveling with military units to more than 600.
"War Correspondent's Advice: Stay Off the Press Bus," Editor and Publisher, February 26, 2003
On a day the Pentagon was announcing its guidelines for the more than 500 "embedded" reporters accompanying U.S. forces in any attack on Iraq, veteran war correspondent Chris Hedges remained worried about what, on the face of it, might seem extraordinary measures by the Pentagon to facilitate press coverage.
"Schanberg's Take on the Pentagon's Media Rules," Editor and Publisher, February 24, 2003
Em-bed-ded, said Sydney H. Schanberg, savoring the word's many ambiguities and connotations. "Embedded means, ‘You're there.' It also means, ‘You're stuck.'" Schanberg is one of the media's leading authorities on hazardous duty. A decorated correspondent for The New York Times, his adventures in Vietnam and Cambodia during the 1970s—and the plight of his former aide, Dith Pran—were dramatized in the Oscar-winning 1984 film, "The Killing Fields." An Army veteran himself, Schanberg, 68, left the Times in 1986 and now writes for The Village Voice in New York.
"Why is Pentagon Inviting Press to Accompany Troops? Military Wants its Own Story Told," Editor and Publisher, February 21, 2003
Missing in the coverage of the Pentagon's "ground rules" for embedded reporters, who will travel with U.S. forces in the event of a war with Iraq, is the military's official explanation for why they are doing it
CNN: "Newsnight with Aaron Brown"
Transcript of discussion on Pentagon "embedding"
"US Military Document Outlines War Coverage: Promises Wide Access, But Strict Limits," Editor and Publisher, February 14, 2003
The U.S. military plans to take extraordinary steps to provide the media access to combat zones in Iraq, but only after making reporters agree to a series of strict prohibitions, according to a lengthy document sent by a press officer for a major U.S. military base to a news organization that will be "embedding" reporters with American forces preparing for an attack on Iraq.
"Pentagon Gambles on Open-War Policy; Journalists Media Wary of Access
Pledge," Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2003
In an abrupt shift from the military's keep-the-media-away mentality
that prevailed during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Pentagon says it
wants to give journalists live, up-close access to frontline battle units.
Whether truly open access occurs remains to be seen. There is ample concern
within the news media about being manipulated and having the battlefield
message controlled by a Pentagon never known for full disclosure. Still,
media executives say they are cautiously encouraged.
"Truth May Sink in the Desert Sand," Los Angeles Times, January
20, 2003
Those intrepid journalists who remain in Iraq may face challenges from
the U.S. military too, in the form of electronic jamming of their satellite
phones or other technology to thwart live coverage. But this will pale
in comparison with those hapless souls "embedded" with the American forces.
Reporters have been embedded before, in a shack in Panama, in a briefing
room in Dhahran and in their hotels in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They've
been denied timely access to events on the ground until Washington has
in effect "sanitized" the terrain. There is nothing to suggest the Pentagon
will change its policy or permit the kind of unfettered reportage we witnessed
in Vietnam.
"Air War: How Sadam Manipulates the U.S. Media," The New Republic,
October 28, 2002
Like their Soviet-bloc predecessors, the Iraqis have become masters
of the Orwellian pantomime—the state-orchestrated anti-American rally,
the state-led tours of alleged chemical weapons sites that turn out to
be baby milk factories—that promotes their distorted reality. And the
Iraqi regime has found an audience for these displays in an unlikely place:
the U.S. media.
"Boccardi
Concerned About Press Access," The Associated Press, October 25, 2002
The United States may go to war with Iraq away from the watchful eyes
of the press and public, a possible scenario that worries the president
of The Associated Press.
"Infiltrating Iraq No Easy Task," PDNewswire, October 16, 2002
As America and Iraq inch closer to war, many American photojournalists
are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to gain entry into Baghdad.
"Networks
Push for War Access," EPN World Reporter, October 9, 2002
Despite predictions that the US armed forces will prevent journalists
from covering military action in Iraq, broadcasters are refusing to give
up hope of getting close to the front line. But are the days of front
line reporting gone for good?
" Journalists Are
Owed Protection in Wartime," Newsday, March 31, 2003
Less than two weeks into the Iraq war, this conflict already has proved
to be most dangerous for journalists. Two have been killed, several injured
and at least six are missing.
The disturbing toll raises critical issues about how journalists are to
be treated in times of war when their determination to report the news
puts them squarely in harm's way.
"
Live From Iraq," Newsweek, March 26, 2003
Newsweek's Jennifer Barrett speaks with Joel Simon, acting director of the
Committee to Protect Journalists, about how well protected journalists are
in Iraq and how that is affecting the way the war is reported.
"
Unembedded Reporters Face Grave Dangers: Chicago Trib Reporter Offers
Chilling Account," Editor and Publisher, March 26, 2003
On Wednesday, E&P received a message from veteran Chicago Tribune
reporter Laurie Goering. She has been based in Kuwait as “unilateral,”
or non-embedded journalist for several weeks and has gotten into southern
Iraq.
Goering wrote, “It now appears that unilateral reporters cannot
operate in Iraq with the current security situation without being sort
of unofficially embedded with troops, or at least being able to camp at
night near them. Unilaterals have had mortars and RPGs [rocket-propelled
grenades] fired at them by Iraqi troops. Lack of supply is also an enormous
problem. Unilaterals who are up closer to Baghdad are having to abandon
their vehicles as they cannot source gasoline to keep them running, even
with military help (the military runs on diesel, and there are no diesel
vehicles to rent in Kuwait where people started, hence the problem).
“I hear a small group of unilaterals up there are actually siphoning
the last of their gas into one vehicle, getting in together, and trying
to make it to Baghdad in that vehicle.”
"
Decorated Reporter Shares War-Survival Secrets," Editor and Publisher,
March 17, 2003
Joseph L. Galloway, a famed war correspondent who covered conflicts
from the Vietnam War to the Gulf War—and co-wrote the book We
Were Soldiers Once ... and Young (later a Mel Gibson movie)—now
serves as military-affairs correspondent for Knight Ridder in its Washington
office. When Knight Ridder journalists go abroad to cover another possible
war against Iraq, they receive from Galloway a memo. "There are old war
correspondents and bold war correspondents," he observes, "but no old,
bold war correspondents."
"War reporting
enters 21st Century," BBC, March 12, 2003
Even when there was nothing to say, even when they knew nothing, the
correspondents so expensively deployed across the Middle East were on
the air, sounding authoritative, or scared
On Assignment: Covering Conflict Safely
CPJ's handbook for journalists facing the difficult and dangerous job
of war reporting.
"News organizations
prepare for possibility of war in Iraq," The Associated Press, November
8, 2002
CNN is distributing bodysuits to news crews in case of a chemical
or biological weapons attack. The Sun of Baltimore and the Chicago
Tribune are sending reporters to special security classes. Fox News
is surveying the Middle East to figure out the best and safest places
for its cameras. Whether the United States and Iraq will end up at war
is still unknown, but many media organizations are drawing up plans and
mobilizing staff just in case.
"Journalist
Training for Iraq Conflict," EPN World Reporter, November 5,
2002
There have been mixed reactions amongst editors to the journalist combat
training initiative announced last week by the Pentagon. The announcement
came as part of ongoing preparations for war coverage in view of the Iraq
situation. The one-week training programmes are to include sessions on
military procedures such as ammunitions, first aid and response to nuclear,
chemical and biological attack, as well as those concerning rules of engagement
and the U.S. command structure.
"Journalists Face Biochemical Threat," EPN World Reporter,
October 8, 2002
As news organisations prepare to cover military action in Iraq, journalists
are taking safety training courses designed to cope with the threat of
biochemical weapons.
"MacArthur Warns About Pentagon Control,"Editor and Publisher,
March 18, 2003
If the Pentagon does indeed execute the Iraqi war plan it calls "Shock
and Awe" this month, the very brevity of the intensive bombing campaign
presents a challenge all too familiar to John R. MacArthur. A former reporter
for the Chicago Sun-Times and foreign desk editor for United Press
International, MacArthur is now publisher of Harper's Magazine.
He is also the author of Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in
the Gulf War, a penetrating investigation into how the Pentagon promoted
unprecedented curbs on the press in the opening days of the Gulf War.
"Full Metal Junket: The Myth
of the Objective War Correspondent," Slate, March 5, 2003
The first-person pieces by reporters who've completed "media boot camps"
in preparation for covering the Iraq attack should prime us for the sight
of gut-wagons wheeling back from the front piled high with journos. In
piece after piece, combat-inept reporters undergo multiple simulated deaths
as their trainers attack them with mock mustard gas, grenades, and bullets.
"Showdown at the U.N. Corral: Pressing the Press on Iraq," Present
Tense, February 21, 2003
The Administration knows that military preparation is not enough. It
has set out to prepare the public and the press.
"U.S. Journalists in Baghdad Wait for Fighting: Big Opportunity but ‘Terrifying
Prospect'" Editor and Publisher, February 4, 2003
Although most of the Western journalists holed up this week inside
the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad awaiting a U.S. attack on Iraq weren't
there when the Persian Gulf War started, they can feel its links to the
past. Best known as the building where TV journalists telecast the first
U.S. bombing strike 12 years ago, the hotel's violent legacy remains uppermost
in the minds of reporters staying there now. Hoping (perhaps against hope)
that military training, both from private companies and the Pentagon,
will be enough to protect them, even as they stock up on gas masks and
protective clothing, many of the dozens of reporters and photojournalists
stationed at the hotel told E&P that they're excited at the prospect
of being in the enemy's capital when the action begins.
"Into Harm's Way: As war looms in Iraq, journalists disagree about how
best to cover the conflict—and live to tell the story," Christian
Science Monitor, January 30, 2003
The first Gulf War was a fiasco. Journalists who covered it will tell
you: Some of the dispatches they sent home in the winter and spring of
1991 are embarrassing to read today. Holed up in a hotel, herded into
pens for military briefings, few of the roughly 1,400 who reported from
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on Operation Desert Storm had the military expertise
to judge whether the press releases they were fed—about the successes
of Patriot missiles, the accuracy of smart bombs—could possibly be true.
"Journalists Debate Pending War," Editor and Publisher, January
29, 2003
Now, with polls showing rising doubts about the wisdom of a war at
this moment, E&P examines some of the issues the press should—indeed,
must—confront before the bombs start falling. Also, we describe some surprising
views from the boardrooms, from the editors' lairs, and from the journalistic
trenches.
"Arnett: Expect Better Coverage of this War," USA Today, November
20, 2002
Former CNN correspondent Peter Arnett is back in Baghdad—the scene
of his glory days from the last Gulf War—and he predicts that the United
States will be at war with Iraq in short order. "I don't think Saddam
will fess up to much, and there will be a confrontation that'll lead to
war sooner than later," Arnett says. "I don't see how it can end any other
way."
"The
Real Cost of the Coming War," The Independent, October 22,
2002
"TV Prepares to Go to War," Chicago Tribune, October 21, 2002
As news organizations prepare for the possibility of war with Iraq,
they face many of the same issues they did a decade ago with the Gulf
War: amount of access, expense of deploying personnel thousands of miles
away, risk to employees' lives. But many of these variables seem to have
shifted in ways that might hinder the media as it would strive to keep
the public informed, news executives said.
(Fee based)
"Mobilizing to Cover a
Looming War," The Boston Globe, October 12, 2002.
As war looms in Iraq, the nature of the engagement, the physical risks
facing journalists, Saddam Hussein's actions, and the Pentagon's proclivity
for controlling access to the battle all pose daunting challenges to media
outlets positioning themselves to cover the conflict. Extensive on-scene
reporting looks like a very difficult proposition.
(Fee based)
Broadcast Media
Shabab TV (Youth TV). One
of two in television channels in Iraq controlled by Saddam Hussein's son,
Uday.
Print Media
Ajeeb's
Tarjim Translator
Arabic-English Translation on the Web
Iraqi News Agency. The official state news agency.
http://www.uruklink.net/iraqnews/
(Arabic)
http://www.uruklink.net/iraqnews/eindex.htm
(English)
Al-Thawra (The Revolution). The official Iraqi daily of
the Arab Socialist Baath Party.
Al-Jumhurriya (The Republic). Official daily.
Babil (Babel). The influential daily controlled by Uday
Saddam Hussein
http://www.iraq2000.com/babil/
Al-Iraq.
Official daily.
Alwan.
An Iraqi weekly controlled by Uday Saddam Hussein.
Al-Talaba.
Iraqi weekly published by the national union of Iraqi students.
Alef-Ba.
A weekly magazine published in Baghdad.
Al-Zawra.
A weekly magazine published in Baghdad.
Ishtar. A monthly
women's magazine published in Baghdad.
Al-Baath al-Riyadhi.
A weekly Baathist sports paper.
Live
From Baghdad: Making Journalism History Behind the Lines by Robert
Weiner (Griffin Trade Paperback, December 2002)
The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from
the Crimea to Kosovo by Philip Knightly (Johns Hopkins University
Press, May 2002)
Hotel
Warriors: Covering the Gulf War by John J. Fialka and Peter
Braestrup (Woodrow Wilson Center Special Studies, April 1992).
Live
from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Bagdad, 35 Years in the World's
War Zones by Peter Arnett (Touchstone Books, January 1995).
Media Access and the Military by Judith Raine Baroody (University
Press of America, March 1998).
The
Persian Gulf TV War: Critical Studies in Communication and in the Cultural
Industries by Douglas Kellner (Westview Press)