Preface

Part I: Overview

1. The Meaning of the Murders "Journalists will continue to face violent reprisals from state security forces, from international drug gangs, from armed dissidents of diverse ideological stripes," argues the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "But in more and more places, the good guys are winning, and their stories are getting out."

William A. Orme Jr.

Part II: Reporting from War Zones

2. No Sense at All The tendency to send inexperienced local television crews to cover foreign conflicts puts them in great jeopardy. "Please, leave war coverage to people who do it for a living," cautions a veteran reporter of overseas conflicts.

Martha A. Teichner

3. The Clash of Arms in Exotic Locales "Once upon a time, war correspondents were accorded some support and privileges by the armies they covered. Now it's the other way around," notes a longtime war correspondent.

Peter Arnett

4. The Journey Is the Destination The journalist mother of photographer Dan Eldon, slain in Somalia, explores his life and work. "He cared passionately about Africa and thought that by showing others what was wrong there, someone somewhere might just make it right."

Kathy Eldon

5. Press Freedom--Balkan Style "The Balkan media's plight is urgent," reports a member of the board of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, after a fact-finding trip to the former Yugoslavia. "Without a free press, the dream of reviving a multiethnic society after years of savage violence will remain just that."

Kati Marton

Part III: Government Repression

6. Grim Prospects for Hong Kong "What happens when one of the world's most freewheeling and least regulated societies is taken over by one of the most control-minded regimes on earth?" inquires a journalist with long Asian experience. "Clearly, as of July 1, 1997, it will take Herculean efforts to preserve, much less expand, Hong Kong's press freedom."

John Schidlovsky

7. Self-Censorship in Hong Kong A China analyst relates the concerns of Hong Kong journalists whose news organizations want to participate in the vast but censored Chinese media market: "Many reporters quite honestly confess that they feel caught in a growing tendency toward self-censorship."

Orville Schell

8. Russian Reporters--Between a Hammer and an Anvil A Russian media analyst evaluates the state of press freedom in his country after the demise of the Soviet system: "The mass media and journalists are caught between the market, with its economic pressures, and the authorities, who try to control them by withholding information, issuing economic threats and pressuring journalists."

Iosif M. Dzyaloshinsky

9. Defiant Publishing in Nigeria "While the sheer magnitude of the mess in Nigeria and the dangerous prospects of defiant publishing make an absolute victory impossible," writes an exiled Nigerian editor, "the press has no choice but to continue to push the government to keep clear in its mind that the age of guns and jackboots, having become absolutely anachronistic, will soon pass."

Dapo Olorunyomi

10. Indonesia--Cracks in the Wall "Can a nation that has tasted freedom of the press be forced back into censorship and the imprisonment of independent journalists? Indonesia may well offer an answer," writes an analyst of Asian press freedom.

Vikram A. Parekh

11. The Long Arm of British Law "Britain no longer rules the waves," argues a London barrister and expert in Commonwealth law, "but in countries throughout the world it is the British rule book that tends to be waved at journalists and authors, in an edition much more strict than applies in Britain."

Geoffrey Robertson

12. Turkish Journalists on Trial "While their colleagues around the world face harassment from thugs, physical attacks, assassinations, extralegal pressure from police and outright censorship," notes an Ankara reporter writing under a pseudonym, "Turkish journalists are intimidated and censored under laws that, at first glance, seem friendly to press freedom."

Ahmet Emin

Part IV: Civil Unrest

13. Algerian Journalists--Casualties of a Dirty War "In Algeria, a crazy slaughter has set the country on fire," writes an exile living in France. "Journalists are among this dirty war's casualties--59 of them as of August 1996. As the only witnesses of this underreported warfare, theirs is a highly perilous trade. They are caught between an oppressive government and murderous armed Islamic groups."

Taoufiq Derradji

14. In America, Justice for Some "Over the last decade, 10 immigrant journalists have been murdered in the United States of America," notes an investigative reporter. "In a country where it is widely assumed that reporters are safe from violence, their deaths are a reminder that the protections of the First Amendment are imperfectly applied, that mainstream reporters are generally much safer than their immigrant counterparts and that the tendency to put immigrant journalists in a separate category leaves them in dangerous isolation."

Ana Arana

Part V: Organized Crime

15. Blood and Fear in Italy "It is impossible to provide an armed escort for every journalist," writes an Italian reporter who has covered organized crime for many years. "The only way to make reporters safe is to eliminate the Mafia threat. And that will happen only through mobilized citizens and a mobilized judiciary."

Candida Curzi

16. Veronica Guerin, In Life and Death The slain Irish investigative reporter is commemorated in her own words and the words of her former editor: "She was a brave and brilliant reporter."

Part VI: Portfolio

17. Dangerous Exposures Photographs from wars and civil disorders reveal a fundamental truth about photography: "If photographers are close enough to shoot their pictures, they are more than close enough to get shot."

Susan D. Moeller

Part VII: Solutions

18. Lessons from American History "Violence against journalists in the United States declined dramatically when journalism professionalized in the early 20th century," writes a historian of violence against the press. "But they will never be entirely safe. In an age with any political action at all, good journalists should expect some friction."

John Nerone

19. Repairing the Damage "Journalists can be wounded, often seriously, even without being in the proverbial line of fire," reflects the managing editor of the Daily Oklahoman. "Those of us who direct coverage owe them a chance to be made whole again."

Ed Kelley

20. Watch Your Back News organizations themselves must take responsibility for safeguarding their staffers, argues the director of The Freedom Forum European Center: "One killer, be it a mobster or trigger-happy soldier, brought to justice for murdering a journalist sends a signal that it is no longer open season on reporters and camera men and women."

John Owen

Part VIII: Interviews

21. Reporting from War Zones Reflections from W.C. Heinz, World War II correspondent for the New York Sun, with New York free-lancer George Robinson.

22. Kemal Kurspahic Kemal Kurspahic is former editor of the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje.

23. Civil Unrest Bob Greene is professor of journalism at Hofstra University and a former investigative reporter.

24. Organized Crime Maria Caballero is special investigations editor/national editor of Cambio 16, Colombia.

25. Portfolio Donna Ferrato is a photojournalist and is founder and co-chair of Domestic Abuse Awareness Project.

Part IX: Review Essay

26. The Death of a Reporter "George Polk was a troublemaker, and in that sense he was an embodiment of the best traditions of his profession," concludes a journalist who reviews three accounts of Polk's murder and its aftermath. "As long as his story inspires one or two journalists to resist--to continue to make trouble--then George Polk will not have died in vain."

D. D. Guttenplan

For Further Reading

Index