Journalists: Unacknowledged Heroes of the World

By Natalie Boyle, Teda International School

On June 8, 2008, the body of BBC Reporter Abdul Samad Rohani was discovered in a ditch in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. In December 2004, James Taricani, a Rhode Island reporter, began a six month house arrest sentence for refusing to name a source. In 1980, a Reuters reporter was shot and killed while leaving a dinner party in West Beirut with his wife after receiving information of a rebellion against Havez Assad's regime there. Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, an Afghan journalism student, was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges. The National Guard detained four journalists after the 9/11 attacks; film was confiscated and a photographer was held for three days before being released without charge. These are merely a few examples of people being denied freedom of the press. Death threats, kidnapping, assassination, unlawful detention, and other forms of intimidation have become part of the daily lives journalists all over the world.
The International Federation of Journalists estimates that over the last 12 years, more than 1,100 journalists and media personnel have died doing their jobs. There have been over 1,100 journalist and media personnel deaths, only one in four of which occurred during a war or armed conflict. That means that on average there were two deaths every week. Reporters Without Borders states that in this year alone, 28 journalists have been killed, and 132 were imprisoned along with 70 so called cyberdissidents. According to the Fund for Independence in Journalism, in two thirds of the instances that resulted in death, the killers were never identified, and in 90% of the cases, they were never prosecuted.
While we would like to believe that it is only in third world countries that journalists are prevented from publishing the news, sadly, it is not true. Since 2004, more than a dozen journalists have been prosecuted in the United States for refusing to reveal their sources. The United States is currently ranked 48th in terms of freedom of the press (Iceland is first, while North Korea is 168th). All over the world, journalists face opposition to their vital work -- informing the people of the world of abuses of power, disasters, wars, human rights triumphs, politics, and miracles -- but the fact of the matter is, governments are, and rightfully should be afraid of the power of information.
The Cold War is a perfect example of this issue. As the Soviet Union was crumbling around him, Mikhail Gorbachev implemented a policy of 'Perestroika,' or reform, that was aimed to curry favor with the masses. 'Glasnost' was the similar policy of openness that was supposed to entail the gradual relaxation of censorship of the press. Unfortunately for Gorbachev, the media discovered a wealth of information concerning the Chernobyl disaster, governmental corruption, social issues, and food shortages, information about which had previously been confined to a small number of people due to governmental censorship. The media, consequently, was also allowed to spread nationalistic ideas that directly affected the growth of nationalist movements in the Soviet Union's many republics. Essentially, it was freedom of the press that led to the collapse of the USSR, so it is no wonder that governments today are so frightened by the power of the press.
A modern example is the recent Olympic Games in Beijing. Article 51 of the Olympic Charter states that the International Olympic Committee should “take all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media and the widest possible audience . . . for the Olympic Games.” And while China did allow temporary laws to be implemented allowing some freedom for foreign journalists to interview any consenting Chinese citizen, this freedom was not extended to the Chinese press. In fact, many of the foreign journalists did not notice a difference; media personnel were still interrogated for the names, phone numbers, and addresses of their very vulnerable sources. Many of these sources, consequently, lost their jobs, were threatened, and in some cases, were severely beaten.
Foreign journalists in Tibet were told that “previous procedures” concerning the media were in effect; these involved huge quantities of paperwork that made traveling to Tibet virtually impossible. Similarly, the government was eager for journalists to cover their response to the Sichuan Earthquake, but as soon as something was uncovered that suggested governmental mishandling, officials reverted to “previous procedures.” In one case, an Associated Press reporter and two photographers were forcibly removed from a group of protesting parents.
This is not, however, a unique situation; governments and organizations all over the world have resorted to intimidation to force the media to be silent. Instances of media intimidation have been documented everywhere: in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Eritrea, the Palestinian territories, and Beirut, and more. One cannot forget the footage in Myanmar last year of the Japanese journalist being shot: His film was never recovered, but his story was told.
Media freedom is something we as educated people tend to take for granted, and yet, it can be so easily be taken away. We rely on a free flow of information in the world today, but we don't realize how much people go through to provide us with this necessary commodity. So next time you pick up a newspaper, try to be aware of the lives that were possibly lost or destroyed in the recounting of the world's stories.