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A Dangerous Job
Journalists, too, have a role in the fight for freedom, and sometimes the
risks of reporting are great.
By Robert Leger
In the United States, journalists sometimes go to jail rather than give up
a source. We fight with public officials over records and meetings. We miss
dates or a kid’s soccer game to cover a breaking story. While we seek to
tell our readers, listeners, and viewers what is happening in their community,
their state, or the world, we find ourselves facing a public that questions
our motives. But rarely are American journalists killed for asking questions
and seeking truth.
We are slapped into realizing how dangerous this job can be when terrorists
kidnap and murder Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was doing the
same thing we do every day: reporting a story.
It shakes us. It angers us. And then we consider that unfriendly fire in Afghanistan
has killed more reporters than American soldiers.
Sadly, the death of a journalist isn’t unusual. Last year, at least three
dozen reporters were killed for doing their jobs. They asked questions, looked
at records, and reported what they found. They didn’t put on a uniform
or carry a weapon, but they, too, were fighting for freedom.
In lists compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Freedom Forum,
phrases such as “he had uncovered links between police and smuggling rings”crop
up regularly. In the United States, revealing corruption can win you a Pulitzer
Prize. In other countries, it can get you a bullet to the brain.
Or worse:
— Feng Zhaoxia, who wrote about criminal gangs and their links to corrupt
local politicians for a Chinese daily, was found in a ditch outside Xi’an
with his throat cut. The gash was four inches long and one and a half inches
deep, witnesses said, but police ruled the death a suicide. They banned the
local press from writing about it. “He was very bright, very cultured,”one
relative told Reuters. “He was determined to make a contribution to society.”
— Brignol Lindor hosted a talk show on Radio Echo in Petit-Goâve, Haiti.
He allowed members of the 15-party opposition coalition to appear on his Radio
Echo talk show. A machete-wielding mob, egged on by the town’s deputy
mayor, ambushed Lindor and killed him.
— Jose Luis Ortega Mata was editor of a weekly newspaper in Mexico. The paper
reported that the federal attorney general was investigating drug trafficking
in a nearby town. He was reportedly working on a story that drug traffickers
were funding the election campaigns of local politicians. On Feb. 19, 2001,
someone fired two bullets into his head at close range.
— Igor Aleksandrov was stepping into Tor, the independent television company
he managed in Ukraine, when attackers beat him with baseball bats. He died
four days later. His television show “Without Censorship” featured
investigative coverage of government corruption and organized crime. Police
said the attack was a case of mistaken identity; a parliamentary commission
was skeptical.
Three journalists with ties to the United States are on the list of journalists
killed in 2001: Kerem Lawton, a British citizen who worked for Associated Press
Television News, died from shrapnel wounds in Kosovo. Robert Stevens, a photo
editor at the tabloid The Sun, died of inhalation anthrax. William Biggart,
a free-lance photographer, died in the collapse of the World Trade Center; he
told his wife, in a cell-phone call, not to worry. “I’m OK. I’m
with the firemen.”
Most people go the other way when firefighters rush into danger. Good journalists
are driven to follow them, to get closer to truth, to show readers, viewers
and listeners what is happening around them — and, in our own way, to fight
for freedom.
Usually, the worst we have to deal with is a police officer telling us we can’t
cross this line or a subscriber angry enough about a story to cancel a subscription.
We accept that as a cost of our calling, and go about our work.
But sometimes, in too many countries, journalists have to decide if a story
is worth risking their life for. That so many continue pursuing truth is a testament.
Robert Leger is editorial page editor at The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. This essay is adapted and expanded from a column that originally appeared in that paper.
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SPJ's International Journalism Committee Blog
• Chinese authorities confiscate reporters notebooks and recorders
• Russian attacks on Georgian Internet
• Fake and corrupt journalism in China
International Journalism Committee
The International Journalism Committee works to improve and protect
international journalism and encourage the free practice of journalism in all
countries.
For the purposes of this committee, international journalism is
defined as any journalism that involves foreign journalists, that takes place
overseas, or that deals with international affairs.
To improve international journalism, the committee will do some
or all of the following:
— Write articles about international journalism for Quill.
— Put together a panel on a topic related to international journalism at the
annual convention.
— Lend assistance to journalists when they ask for our help, both American and
foreign, to the extent we are able to do so.
— Create resources of use to international journalists and make them available
via the Web, printed guidebooks, or other means to both foreign and American
journalists.
— Find ways to bring foreign journalists to the U.S. and American journalists
overseas for fellowships, conferences, and other educational purposes.
To protect international journalism, the committee will do some or all of the following:
— Draft press releases and letters on behalf of international
journalism or international journalists.
— Lobby Congress in favor of measures that support international journalism.
— Work with other organizations on international projects related to freedom
of speech, freedom of information, and similar issues.
— Act as a watchdog on U.S. government agencies that may attempt to restrict
international journalism.
Are you interested in serving on the committee? Please contact our committee chairs to find out how you can help.
International Journalism Committee Chair
June Nicholson, chair
Associate Professor
School of Mass Communications
Virginia Commonwealth University
901 W. Main Street
Richmond, VA 23284-2034
804/827-0251
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)
June O. Nicholson is associate director and an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. She chaired national SPJ’s Journalism Education Committee from 2000-2007 and has been a member of several other national SPJ committees over the past two decades. She is co-developer of the SPJ newsroom training module on covering diverse communities. Nicholson is a former president of the Virginia professional chapter of SPJ and a current board member.
At VCU, Nicholson teaches government, enterprise and project reporting and coverage of specialized beats such as science, health, education, urban affairs and the environment. She also teaches a course on International Media Coverage: The Middle East. She has been a lead faculty member in developing opportunities in the VCU chool of Mass Communications for expanding international initiatives. Before joining the VCU faculty, she was a reporter and editor for some 14 years in North Carolina and Virginia. Nicholson holds a master’s degree in public affairs journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I am a member of SPJ because I believe the organization plays a vital role in protecting the First Amendment, free speech and freedom of information in this country.”
Ricardo Sandoval, vice chair
Assistant City Editor
Sacramento Bee
Bio (click to expand)
Ricardo Sandoval is Assistant City Editor at the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He supervises the paper’s environment, science and regional development teams of reporters. Before joining The Bee, Sandoval was a foreign correspondent, based in Mexico City, for the Dallas Morning News and Knight Ridder Newspapers. Sandoval was born in Mexico and raised in San Diego, California. He graduated with a journalism degree from Humboldt State University in Northern California. His career has spanned three decades and has included award-winning coverage of California agriculture, immigration, the savings and loan scandal and the deregulation of public utility companies. His list of awards includes the Overseas Press Club, the InterAmerican Press Club, the Gerald Loeb prize for business journalism and two honors from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Sandoval co-authored — with his wife, journalist Susan Ferriss — the biography “The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement” published in 1997 by Harcourt.
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