Conflict Journalism

A month before the war in Lebanon broke out, the Al Jazeera channel began filming documentary programs, which have not yet been broadcast, about life in Israel and, among other things, the Hebrew press. In an interview that a reporter for the channel conducted with me, she read out questions that had been dictated by the office in Amman and the editorial desk in Qatar. I told her the Israeli press...

Tension has been mounting in Gaza Strip since a group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades released a video of two Fox News Channel journalists it said it kidnapped last week. In a statement with the video on August 23, the previously unknown group demanded the release of prisoners held by the United States within 72 hours in exchange for the journalists, an American and a New Zealander. The...

Managing Director of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Ahmad Khademolmelleh here Wednesday said that besides fighting in the military front, Lebanon was involved in a media war directed by the US. He made the remark at the inaugural ceremony of a photo exhibition, called 'Lebanon, Epic of Victory' at the School of Media Studies, which was attended by Lebanese Ambassador to Tehran Adnan...

While conflict situations pose dangers for reporters they also bring inherent difficulties and dilemmas for the newspapers published in conflict zones like Kashmir. Limited freedoms available to the press under these circumstances challenge the very basis of a democratic setup. This also raises a vital question. Can a democracy survive without institutions like a free media and more importantly is...

If these were normal times, the American view of the conflict in Lebanon might look something like the street scenes that have electrified the suburbs of Detroit for the past four weeks. In Dearborn, home to the Ford Motor Co. and the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, up to 1,000 people have turned out day after day to express their outrage at the Israeli military campaign...

As an uneasy truce prevails on the Israel-Lebanon front, it is time for the Lebanese media to take stock of the situation. The month-long operations saw the destruction of basic infrastructure and the imposition of a land, sea and air embargo leading to a massive drop in advertising, distribution problems, and fears of paper supply shortages. SCOURING FOR NEWS: Lebanese civilians collect...

The renewed fighting in Sri Lanka is taking its toll on the press too. This month alone a newspaper delivery agent was killed, a newspaper's office's searched by state security personnel, police bodyguards to an editor withdrawn, and the press virtually barred from reporting on the humanitarian crisis rising out of the conflict. There have been frantic calls to all to leave journalists alone...

There is still no sign of the two Fox News Channel journalists abducted in Gaza six days ago. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the journalists from the US television network, and the kidnappers have made no demands yet. A FRANTIC PLEA: Anita McNaught holds a picture of her husband, Fox news cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, as she speaks during a demonstration called...

The BBC's head of newsgathering has defended the corporation's coverage of the recent Middle East conflict, saying it was not considered necessary to precede its broadcasts with references to the censorship rules operated by both Israel and Hizbollah. Responding to criticism claiming that the BBC's coverage of the Lebanon conflict has been both too pro-Israeli and too pro-Hizbollah, Fran Unsworth...

Photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin of Magnum Photos was one of several people injured in an Aug. 6 missile attack in southern Lebanon. Pellegrin and reporter Scott Anderson were traveling together in Tyre on assignment for The New York Times Magazine. They were treated for their injuries and now are back at work in Lebanon. "They're in Beirut. They're fine," says Kathy Ryan, director of photography...