Conflict Journalism

Hemin Baba Rahim, 26, a reporter with the reputable Kurdish newspaper Hawlati (Citizen), and his wife were sound asleep when security forces raided their home in Kifri, 220 kilometres southeast of Sulaimaniyah. Baba Rahim was arrested, dragged to a car and taken to the offices of the security services where he had to spend a sleepless night with 18 people in a small room. He was released the...

New York, August 30, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of Sri Lankan radio producer Nadaraja Guruparan, who was abducted by gunmen in the capital, Colombo, early Tuesday. Guruparan said he was held for about 20 hours by kidnappers who had forced him out of his car as he drove to work at the privately owned Tamil-language radio station Sooriyan, or Sun FM...

New York, August 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that veteran Sri Lankan journalist Nadarajah Guruparan is missing and feared abducted in Colombo today. The Free Media Movement, a local press group, reported that Guruparan, a producer, left for work at the privately owned Tamil-language radio station Sooriyan, or Sun FM, around 4 a.m. Guruparan’s family...

Darfur is in the news finally. And all for the wrong reasons. The genocide which remained out of the headlines primarily in the US media, is now generating more than 5,000 results on Google news following the arrest of an American Pulitzer-winning journalist on charges of spying. TRYING TO FIND A WAY OUT: Paul Salopek (C), a US writer for National Geographic magazine, talks with unidentified...

Eight prominent journalists convened in a town hall meeting at the Jerusalem YMCA Monday night in the first public forum seriously tackling some of the most difficult questions that have arisen over the media's coverage of the second Lebanon War. Bluntly responding to the interrogations of Media Line Jerusalem Bureau Chief David Harris, the journalists, including Steven Erlanger of The New York...

GROZNY, Russia: The hurried effort to free Elina Ersenoyeva, who was abducted by masked men on the main street of Chechnya's capital on Aug. 17, began like many others. An account of her disappearance was compiled and circulated. Human rights groups and civil society organizations urged Russia to investigate and secure her release. She was a journalist and social worker, they said - another victim...

GAZA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike hit a Reuters vehicle in Gaza City on Saturday, wounding two journalists as they covered a military incursion, doctors and residents said. One of the Palestinian journalists, who worked for a local media organisation, was seriously wounded. A cameraman working for Reuters was knocked unconscious in the air strike, one of several in the area. The...

Two journalists kidnapped in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago were released Sunday after their kidnappers forced them at gunpoint to say on a videotape that they had converted to Islam. It was not clear whether a deal had been struck with the abductors. THE CENTRE OF ATTRACTION: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh meeting freed journalist Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig. To joy...

An Israeli air strike hit a Reuters vehicle in Gaza City on Saturday, wounding two journalists as they covered a military incursion, the news agency reported. One of the Palestinian journalists, who worked for a local media organisation, was seriously wounded. A cameraman working for Reuters was knocked unconscious in the air strike, one of several in the area. ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE VICTIM: Sabbah...

The Arab world tuned into the events in Lebanon in July, and Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station was one of the main beneficiaries, according to ratings released by Ipsos-Stat. As detailed in the Mena Report, a publication of the Al Bawaba Media and Technology group, the biggest surprise in the ratings, measured between July 15 and 28, during the war in Lebanon, was the emergence of Al-Manar as the No...