Attacks on the Press

  

The Sadness of May the 25th

To rewrite one’s story, when it is so painful, feels like a kind of suicide. Psychologists would say that is part of a grieving process, helping close nefarious chapters in life. We, the victims of sexual violence, are often told that. But I think it would be more helpful to the goal of moving forward…

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Attacks on the Press

Highly publicized murders of journalists heighten awareness of the grave dangers that reporters and photographers face around the world. Less widely known are the myriad other risks to journalists, including imprisonment, cyberattacks, harassment, frivolous lawsuits, and censorship. These threats exist to varying degrees in war zones, politically volatile regions, and even stable countries, and they…

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Foreword

In Pakistan, an unknown gunman shoots a news anchor multiple times. No one is arrested for the crime, though arrest warrants are issued against the journalist–for his reporting.

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A female reporter runs with a rebel fighter while evading snipers near Aleppo, Syria, October 10, 2014. (Reuters/Jalal Al-Mamo)

Going it alone: More freelancers means less support, greater danger

Matthieu Aikins probably wouldn’t saunter into Afghanistan again in the way he did six years ago.

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Journalists are trained in battlefield medicine by Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues, or RISC, in New York City. Mike Shum, left, and Holly Pickett prepare to move a training dummy simulating an injured person during a care-under-fire exercise. (AP/RISC, James Lawler Duggan)

Covering war for the first time–in Syria

The small room in the back of the Monsours’ house was set up for two people: two desks, two nightstands, and two beds. The beds had matching sheets and pillowcases adorned with Superman cartoon characters.

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Free Syrian Army fighters are filmed as they run towards the fence of the Menagh military airport, trying to avoid snipers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's countryside on January 6, 2013. (Reuters/Mahmoud Hassano)

The rules of conflict reporting are changing

On the icy-cold morning of February 22, 2012, Marie Colvin, a 58-year-old Irish-American reporter, was killed by the blast of a rocket in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, Syria.

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A militant uses a mobile phone to film fellow Islamic State fighters taking part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's Raqqa province on June 30, 2014. (Reuters/Stringer)

Broadcasting murder: Militants use media for deadly purpose

News of the August 19, 2014, murder of journalist James Foley broke not in the media but instead on Twitter. News organizations faced the agonizing questions of how to report on the killing and what portions of the video to show. If a group or individual commits an act of violence, and then films it,…

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The mother, right, of photographer Nadhir Ktari, who disappeared with fellow journalist Sofiane Chourabi in Libya in September 2014, attends a demonstration held in solidarity with the missing pair, in Tunis on January 9, 2015. (Reuters/Anis Mili)

Lack of media coverage compounds violence in Libya

Near the end of August 2014, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates launched airstrikes against what were characterized as Islamist-allied militias fighting near Tripoli, Libya. Or maybe they didn’t. The New York Times broke the story on August 25, 2014; Egypt denied it, the UAE didn’t comment, and U.S. officials made seemingly conflicting statements.

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Cándido Figueredo, veteran border-beat reporter for Paraguay's largest newspaper, travels with armed bodyguards on the rare occasions that he leaves the safety of his home. (John Otis)

Reporting with bodyguards on the Paraguayan border

Like a riveting lede to one of his stories on cocaine smugglers and crime bosses, Paraguayan journalist Cándido Figueredo makes a dramatic first impression.

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Between conflict and stability: Journalists in Pakistan and Mexico cope with everyday threats

By Daniel DeFraia The Pakistani journalist knew the risk, but he wrote the story about the militants anyway. Years earlier he had been shot, after reporting on another taboo subject, but for him the freelance work was thrilling, even after he had to marry his girlfriend in secret and flee Pakistan without her–and still now,…

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