Text size:

Iraq one of 'deadliest conflicts' for journalists

BY MICHAEL CLANCEY | amNEW YORK CITY EDITOR

January 30, 2006

The attack that injured ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman Monday underscores the dangers journalists, relief workers and soldiers face in Iraq each day.

Since the war in Iraq began in March 2003, 61 journalists have been killed as the result of a hostile action, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. By comparison, from 1955 to 1975, 66 journalists were killed in Vietnam, according to records kept by the Freedom Forum, another press advocacy group.

"This is one of the deadliest conflicts in modern history for media professionals," said Joel Campagna, the Committee to Protect Journalist's Middle East Coordinator. "In addition to those killed, many others have been wounded or narrowly averted death."

While Woodruff's experience shows the risks of being embedded in an armed convoy, the abduction of Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, shows the perils for reporters who choose to operate on their own in the war zone.

"It's a fresh reminder of just how dangerous it is for all journalists," Campagna said. "Whether they are Iraqis or foreign, independent or embedded, the dangers do not discriminate."

Despite the attention given to the deaths of high-profile journalists working for U.S. media, the majority of reporters killed in Iraq are Iraqi-born translators, drivers and fixers working for western newspapers and TV.

Of the 61 journalists killed in Iraq, 42 were native Iraqis. As more western reporters face increased danger, they rely on Iraqi freelancers to gather information.

Lisa Ramaci understands the pain of losing a loved one killed while covering an armed conflict. Her husband Steven Vincent, a 49-year-old freelance journalist based in the East Village, was kidnapped and murdered on Aug. 2 while covering a story in Basra.

Ramaci recently started a foundation in her husband's name that will support the families of journalists killed on the job. She hopes to help the families of translators, fixers and freelancers who help Western journalists.

"These are people who work for Western media who don't have the health care, 401Ks or life insurance," Ramaci said. "So when they die, their families are left not only without a loved one but they left without a means of any income."

It's a way for Ramaci to make some good out of her husband's death. But like many people who lose a loved one to terrorists, Ramaci can never hope that the people who killed Vincent will be brought to justice.

"That will be ever be a source of pain that the man who murdered my husband -- who was a good, noble, and honorable man -- will probably live out the rest of their natural lives while my husband is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery will always cause me pain," she said.