I vividly remember the day in June of 1979 when ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was killed while covering the fighting between government troops and Sandinista rebels. I watched the televised footage of Stewart being executed by a Nicaraguan soldier.
My memory of Stewart’s death is rekindled every time I learn of other war correspondents meeting a similar fate. Seven journalists have been killed this month alone, while covering the war in Afghanistan.
They, like Stewart and hundreds of others over the years, lost their lives at the battlefield crossroads of duty and danger.
Reporters and photojournalists have a professional obligation to seek the truth and report it as fully, factually, and fairly as possible. With war coverage that generally means getting as close as possible to the military action to observe firsthand, verify facts, interview combatants and victims, and take pictures that document reality.
The authority of the reporting is a product of a war correspondent’s ability to effectively balance the challenges of access to action with the significant risks to personal safety.
But let us also praise those journalists when they practice the craft with skill and substance. And let us honor those journalists who give the ultimate sacrifice for their profession and for the public they serve. War correspondents tell stories with their own words, with sound, and with images. They report on invasions, civil wars, terrorism, and ethnic and religious strife. They take their readers, listeners and viewers to the battlefront, to the perimeter, and to the rear. They document incomprehensible horror and unimaginable heroism.
War correspondents help the public understand the consequences of government policy, military strategy, and battlefield tactics. They give citizens the essential information to hold their own leaders accountable and to better comprehend what other governments are fighting for or about.
It is appropriate, to be sure, to fault journalism when it fails to measure up to its obligations. It is understandable to question the credibility of journalism when it does not uphold the highest standards of craft and ethics.
But let us also praise those journalists when they practice the craft with skill and substance. And let us honor those journalists who give the ultimate sacrifice for their profession and for the public they serve.
They have shown their devotion to duty in the face of grave danger.
