The Blog of War

Foriegn correspondents of the future beware!
A brief glance at the reporters without borders web-site will give you a good indication of how little freedom of expression is valued in many of the world's countries.

The website runs a tally of how many journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of fighting in Iraq in March 2003. An alarming 74 dead so far, and two still missing.

Little wonder then that the Guardian announced today that it will no longer maintain a fulltime correspondent in Baghdad. After the abduction of Rory Carroll last month, the paper held an internal review and decided it would be less risky for the journalists involved if they took turns out there.

"From the beginning of next year we will have a rota system. We will be there most of the time but we will have four or five people for four- or five-week stints"

An understandable position, but a little saddening. Even before the switch to part-time correspondents, it seems foreign journalists in Iraq rarely moved far beyond the walls of their compounds.

I made my way out to the Stilorgan hotel last month to attend a talk given by Robert Fisk. He touched on a huge range of issues, including the abduction of Rory Carroll and the dangers of reporting from Iraq. He described how foreign journalists rarely if ever ventured beyond the walls of their guarded compounds, instead forced into sub-contracting the risk out to local journalists.

A wee aside: Apparently the hired men standing guard on the towers of the New York Time's compound wear New York times t-shirts over their bullet proof vests, which I thought quite amusing, if its true (is it some sort of marketing thing, or just the crappiest of uniforms?).

Anyhow, I'm rambling on so I'll get back to the point.Fisk, a man of tremendous courage, said that while he may go back for one last visit, it was just too dangerous for him to think about working out there again. Once again, completely understandable, particularly coming from a man who has put his life on the line many times over during the course of his career.

But it does raise a question. If its too dangerous for the hardiest of professional journalists like Fisk and Carroll, where oh where will the news from Iraq be coming from?

And should the western media have kept so damn quiet when Al-Jazeera were getting turfed out of the country?

What do you reckon?

Don't make me use my mind-reading device 'cos if I do, it ain't gonna be pretty!