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New dress code for journalists

By James Rupert | Staff Correspondent

April 27, 2004

Baghdad, Iraq - I've spent a good bit of my first days here changing my appearance. On my first full day, the rumor exploded around the foreign journalists' community in Baghdad: an Iraqi had walked up to a reporter, apparently Spanish, in a market area of Baghdad and shot him dead.

Not all correct. The murdered man was a private soldier, one of the well-trained fighters of the security/military companies that have been hired to help protect officials and facilities of the Coalition Provisional Authority..

But the mistaken rumor pointed out a problem. We journalists look too much like these security guys -- or they like us. Both groups tend to dress for practicality. Photographers' vests, with their many pockets, hold bits of equipment. Decent boots, not too heavy to run in, and sunglasses for being in the streets all day. Khaki is a favored color because it doesn't absorb hot sunlight or show the dust and dirt too much. ("Khak" is the Persian word for dust, so "khaki" was the color that British imperial armies learned to adopt while ruling Persian-speaking peoples of these southwestern Asian deserts.)

So suddenly, I need to not look like an American journalist. I've stashed my oxford shirts and boots and bought cheap Iraqi shirts and shoes (not too comfortable, but tolerable). My photo vest and fanny pack are stored, replaced with a Chinese-made camera bag bearing a bright label that reads "Panasonic Video-Photo Movie Traveler."

I kind of like that. My new identity as a "video-photo movie traveler" doesn't seem like a fashion likely to be taken up soon by the security guards.