Iraqi Journalists
When I was in graduate school, I went to a talk by Anne Garrels, one of NPR's foreign correspondents. (For the last four years, she has reported from Iraq, mostly). Garrels talked about embeds, the political situation in Baghdad, and the nuts and bolts of practicing journalism there. She was in New York only briefly, to accept an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award for NPR's coverage of Iraq. Hours after the awards ceremony, Garrels was Baghdad-bound again.
She shared that award with several reporters, editors, and producers, based in Washington. But she made an important point during her acceptance speech. It would be hard, if not impossible, for NPR to report from Baghdad, without the help of the network's staff of Iraqi translators and journalists, including Isra Rubaie, Abdulla Mizead, Kais Jalele, Saleem Amer, Sa'ad Qasm, Vahram Epikan, Ahmed Hashim, Ahmed Qusay, Abu Ali Salman Daoud, Abu Hider Abdul Qatar Ahmed, who were also recognized by the DuPont jury. Garrels said she would carry that "Silver Baton" in her luggage, for them.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 121 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began there, in 2003; 99 of them were Iraqi. On today's program, we'll talk to two Iraq journalists, and to Anne Garrels. Do you have questions about what they do? Or do you wonder why, and how, they continue to work?
Tags: Anne Garrels | Iraq | Iraqi journalists | NPR | journalism
1:59 PM ET | 10-24-2007 | permalink
