Correspondent Anna Badkhen and photojournalist Mimi Chakarova visited a secret women’s shelter in Baghdad to meet with rape victims and war widows and document their stories.
I first realized that life in America was not as easy and smooth as it appeared in Hollywood movies.noting that he was
astonished by several things I never imagined about life in America. Life is very serious and practical here, and people don't have much time to talk on the street, in markets, or even in public places. It seems everyone is busy with his or her own business and daily concerns.
I was also surprised that most Americans know nothing about the reality of the war in Iraq. I sometimes find it hard to explain, because Iraq is a complicated place. I think it's the history, the civilization, and the old sand of that country that makes it harder than others to be understood. These aspects were not considered at all before the war. You have to study Iraqi history well and get to know the culture more before dealing with the people on a long-term basis.
he asks and he makes the point that
Could somebody outside Iraq reading the newspapers, watching television or listening to the radio have got a real understanding of what was happening in the country? Was the news reporting better than it had been in Vietnam to which it is often compared?
The most frustrating moment for me and many other reporters came as the war escalated in 2004. It soon became clear that the US-led occupation forces controlled only islands of territory and their military position was deteriorating. But George Bush and Tony Blair were able to maintain that the war was confined to only four out of 18 provinces of Iraq and the extent of the violence was being exaggerated by the media. This was quite untrue, but journalists could not disprove it because if we ventured into these supposedly pacific provinces we stood a good chance of being kidnapped or decapitated.
local journalists have been put on notice that their organizations could be shut down for misquoting officials, while the Iraqi government accused the news media of deliberately seeking to promote sectarian strife.reports the paper.
In 2004, the interim government in Iraq banned Al Jazeera, the Arab world’s leading satellite news channel, on grounds of sympathizing with insurgents, and successive governments have extended the ban. An Iraqi television channel, Al Zawra, was permanently closed in 2005 after it broadcast videos of insurgent attacks on American troops.
most of the list encompasses peacetime democracies with functioning law enforcement, nations such as Russia, the Philippines, and India.
With five unsolved murders in the last decade, Brazil is a newcomer to the index this year. Journalists covering crime, corruption, and local politics have faced brutal consequences. Brazil, unlike most countries on this index, has had some success in prosecuting the killers of journalists, obtaining convictions in three slayings in the last decade.
