Journalist
Jill Carroll has spent her time in Iraq as a reporter, a hostage and now a free woman.
As the story of her capture and release moves to the stage of inquiry, a larger story looms for journalists to explore.
It's a story of risk, safety and democracy. Of relationships between
news organizations and reporters, freelancers and their contractors.
The picture of the fresh, bespectacled young woman smiling beneath a
black headscarf -- and, later, that same face, sans headscarf and
glasses, pleading for her own life on a grainy video screen -- has come
to personify the struggle American newspapers and their journalists
face as they report from war zones and dangerous places around the
world.
It's an old story. Reporters have been going into war zones for
millennia, since
Josephus wrote about the brutal
Roman siege of
Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
For newspapers whose mission it is to bring their readers independent
coverage of conflict and crisis abroad and at home, it's question with
life-and-death implications.
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AP
Jill Carroll after her release. |
Jill Carroll is one of hundreds -- perhaps thousands? -- of journalists
who work in places where most outsiders dare not go. War zones. Regions
plagued by instability. Places of genocide, disease and poverty. Sites
of natural disasters and their disquieting aftermaths.
Carroll's experience offers journalists an opportunity to think more
broadly about the promise and risk that come with such coverage.
How should newsrooms weigh the risks of sending reporters into dangerous locations against the public's need to know?
How do journalists reconcile the tension between safety and story? Between personal mission and naοve ambition?
What questions should freelancers ask before they begin their work with a news organization?
And how can journalists cover this story within their own newsrooms?
We hope to answer some of these questions on Poynter Online. We'll be
adding stories throughout the day, so check in with us later for more.
If you have other suggestions, or would like to add your own
experiences,
click here to join us in the conversation.
A VOICE FROM IRAQ: "HAPPINESS DOESN'T NEED TO TALK"
On the
day that Jill Carroll was released,
I received a message from another woman in Iraq. I met her a few years
ago while she toured the United States with a group of Iraqi
journalists. In the time since our introduction, we have corresponded,
and I have been inspired, time and again, with her hope and enthusiasm
for the future of her country.
Until now.
Today's message is much darker. Full of despair, yet somehow imbued
with a profound humanity, a moving portrait of what it means to be
surrounded by war. Because she may be vulnerable, I will not use her
name, but it is known to my editor. (I've also corrected some of the
spelling.) It occurs to me that my Iraqi friend is the kind of person
Jill Carroll has been trying to reach, and whose voice needs to be
heard.
Her letter:
Hi my dear Roy,
I tried to be hopeful in spite of all miserable circumstances. Where
there is a hope, there is a way. I am still alive. Believe me, I want
to die. I want rest and silence. Don't feel sorry for me, it is just
talk with myself. I need someone to hear my thoughts. I want a close
friend to share [with] me these sad feelings. Happiness doesn't need to
talk.
Click here to read the rest of the Iraqi woman's letter.
--
Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar
Posted: 12:28 p.m. March 31, 2006
LOOKING BACK: JOURNALISM IN TIMES OF CONFLICT
The release of Jill Carroll leaves me jubilant and prayerful. As
Anne Lamott once wrote, there are really only two prayers. One is
"help, help, help," the other is "thank you, thank you, thank you."
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RELATED POYNTER RESOURCES
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After jubilance and prayer comes reflection, a time to think once again
of the role of the press in times of emergency and war. Many of us here
at Poynter wrote about these issues in the immediate aftermath of Sep.
11, 2001, and during the buildup to the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. I've dusted off a handful of my columns to share with you now.
"
How to cover the big, big story,"
is a reminder that we have inherited many of the strategies we use to
cover great wars and catastrophes, especially when the eyewitness is
vulnerable to the dangers he or she is covering.
"
Truthful propaganda"
makes a controversial claim that journalists -- even in a democracy --
play a necessary role in support of a nation's efforts in wartime.
"
The invisible uniform"
argues that the patriotism of journalists is not expressed by flag
decals or lapel pins. Instead, it is expressed by moral and physical
courage -- such as Jill Carroll's -- a sense of democratic duty to find
the real story.
"
The post-traumatic press"
recognizes that the experience of war and terrorism can traumatize
individuals, families, towns, an entire nation, and that journalists
have a role to play in relieving panic and placing risks in context.
Finally, "
Should journalists protect their own?" defines the tension that exists when journalists, like Jill Carroll, became part of the story.
--
Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar
Posted: 4:34 p.m. March 30, 2006
COVERAGE RESOURCES FROM "AL'S MORNING MEETING"
Below
are some early resources that you can use as you cover the story of
Jill Carroll's release, from Al Tompkins, author of "Al's Morning
Meeting." For more resources and story ideas, check out previous columns
here.
Three months after she was kidnapped,
Christian Science Monitor freelancer Jill Carroll's captors
released her. Carroll has also had her work from Iraq published in the
American Journalism Review,
U.S. News & World Report, the Italian news agency ANSA, the
San Francisco Chronicle, and other U.S. dailies. She had previously worked as a reporter for
The Jordan Times in Amman. She was interviewed several times by National Public Radio. The
Monitor said the release was not the result of negotiations. She is the fourth Western hostage to be released in the last eight days.
Her abduction is a reminder of the dangerous work journalists are performing in Iraq.
Here is a list of journalists from around the world who have died in Iraq.Jill Carroll joins 38 other journalists who have been kidnapped in Iraq.
Click here to get background information on the other cases. The
Committee to Protect Journalists provides
this analysis of just how dangerous Iraq is for journalists, with this analysis of journalist deaths so far:
By Year:
By Nationality:
- Iraqi: 48
- European: 9
- Other Arab countries: 3
- United States: 2
- All other countries: 5
By Gender:
By Circumstance:
- Murder: 34
- Crossfire or other acts of war: 33
Responsibility:
- Insurgent action: 42 (Includes crossfire, suicide bombings, and murders.)
- U.S. fire: 14 (CPJ has not found evidence to conclude that U.S.
troops targeted journalists in these cases. While the cases are
classified as crossfire, CPJ continues to investigate.)
- Iraqi armed forces, during U.S. invasion: 3 (All are crossfire or acts of war.)
- Source unconfirmed: 8
By Job:
- Photojournalists: 21 (Includes still photographers and camera operators.)
- Reporters and editors: 35
- Producers: 7
- Technicians: 4
By Location:
- Anbar province (Fallujah, Ramadi): 4
- Nineveh province (Mosul): 11
- Baghdad province: 33
- Saleheddin province (Samara): 4
- Basrah province: 3
- Diyala province (Baqubah): 2
- Arbil province: 6
- Karbala province: 1
- Najaf province: 1
- Sulaymaniya province: 1
- Unclear: 1
By embedded status:
- Embedded: 4
- Non-Embedded or "unilateral": 63
Type of news organization:
- Working for international news organization: 34
- Working for Iraqi news organization: 33
Highest death tolls among news organization:
- Iraq Media Network (includes Al-Iraqiya, its affiliates, and Sabah newspaper): 9
- Al-Arabiya: 6
- Reuters: 4
- Kurdistan TV 4
RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN: WHEN COVERAGE GETS PERSONAL
At
The Washington Post, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, AME of the
Continuous News Desk, has spent part of Thursday being interviewed by
other media about Jill Carroll.
He calls her "a good friend," someone he met back in 2002 when he served as Baghdad bureau chief for the
Post and Carroll was a stringer there.
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CSM Audio Report
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Listen to The Christian Science Monitor's podcast report of Jill Carroll's release.
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I asked how he handled his role as an editor of this ongoing story --
covering someone he knows well. Did it pose ethical challenges
for him? He thought not, because, he said, it was "not a story so
controversial that one needs to recuse oneself because of knowing the
person involved." Chandrasekaran said he was not a party to priveleged
information, and didn't interact with Carroll's family during her
captivity.
When interviewed about her, he confines his comments to her work as a
journalist and the working conditions for journalists in Iraq. He felt
his role was to provide perspective only.
The Carroll story broke on the same day
The Washington Post launched its own radio station,
WTWP. Chandrasekaran, whose normal duties involve guiding
Post
news stories to the WashingtonPost.com site, was interviewed at length
on the radio, while simultaneously working on content for the Web site.
At one point while I talked with him, he fielded calls from CNN, which
was arranging to interview him on prime time tonight.
--
Jill Geisler, leadership & management group leader, from the newsroom of
The Washington Post
Posted: 12:17 p.m. March 30, 2006
