• The war in Iraq is the deadliest conflict CPJ has documented. Iraq has far surpassed the Algerian civil conflict of the 1990s, which took the lives of 58 journalists.
• The 2006 tally in Iraq is the highest in a single country since CPJ was founded in 1981. The second deadliest years were 2004 in Iraq and 1995 in Algeria, both of which saw 24 journalists killed.
"This year's killings bring to 92 the number of journalists who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. In addition, 37 media support workers-interpreters, drivers, fixers, and office workers-have been killed since the war began.
Those facts have been completely lost on the rabid warbloggers who have been out for the AP's blood over this Jamil Hussein controversy to the point where they whipped themselves up into an all too predictable frenzy. It's their habit to focus obsessively on minutae while refusing to take a realistic look at the situation as a whole because doing so undermines their belief in and support of this illegal war which the vast majority of Americans now oppose.
When the Iraqi government finally announced on Thursday that Jamil Hussein does exist, which was released in the context of an announcement in which Hussein was threatened with imprisonment for speaking to the media, no one on the right even batted an eye about his fate.
As the AP's Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said on Friday:
Carroll pointed out that critics should be more concerned with the fact that Hussein could face imprisonment for being a source to journalists than how AP handled the situation. "A man who is a legitimate police official who has talked to journalists is threatened with arrest for doing so," she said. "Doesn't that bother anybody other than me? Officials being threatened with arrest for talking to reporters ought to be of concern."
Underscoring the dangers there, news emerged Friday that an AP staffer missing six days had been found dead, the fourth AP employee to die in Iraq.
Well, it certainly bothers me, Ms Carroll, and I've written extensively about the death of press freedom in Iraq, the closure and bannings of media companies and television stations, the massive US government propaganda effort in Iraq, and the habit of CENTCOM and the Pentagon to throw out 'official' stories which are often contradicted by the facts on the ground. We're fortunate that independent reporters like Dahr Jamail are still even allowed to tell the world about what's really happening on the ground in Iraq as he risks his life to do so daily. Maybe the Iraq government just hasn't caught up with him yet.
This campaign to suppress legitimate media in Iraq is certainly not a new development. It began as soon as the US military invaded Iraq and was engineered by J Paul Bremer and the neocons while being ironically reminiscent of how Saddam dealt with the media while he was still in power during which time secretive Pentagon contractors like the Rendon Group were being used to push psyops propaganda in the US media in support of the upcoming invasion.
So, it ought to come as no surprise that press freedom in the new Iraq is something to be feared and strictly controlled by those in power. The years of Rumsfeld protestations over the lack of Good News™ being reported in the US mainstream media showed the desperation of the White House and the Pentagon to exercise ultimate media control over a war they knew they were losing. And that desperation is played out daily on the warblogger sites.
By doing so, they bypass expressing concern about the fate of their troops while their president is planning a reckless surge, forego acknowledging the daily toll of torture victims and wounded and dead Iraqis that continues to escalate, and refuse to admit the deadly threat the media in that country (along with their sources as we have now been sorely reminded) face on an ongoing basis. It's much easier to focus on berating the press when the realities are just too chilling to absorb in the context of what is supposed to be the continual march of so-called freedom which their deluded commander-in-chief keeps insisting is actually happening in Iraq.
Freedom is an extremely rare commodity in Iraq and its price is breathtakingly high for everyone involved.
So, Ms Carroll, there certainly are many of us out here who are very concerned about the reporters in Iraq. You just won't find them in that portion of the right-wing blogosphere that has waged war against you instead of focusing on the real war which apparently is just too difficult for them to process, unfortunately.
Related:
Glenn Greenwald on The 'credibility' of the right-wing blogosphere
Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Round-up 2006
AP Employee Found Shot to Death in Iraq
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