In the line of fire
: This is a terribly dangerous war for journalists. In just the last 20 hours, an al-Jazeera employee died in crossfire by the network’s offices and a Reuters cameraman died [update: and an Italian TV cameraman also died] when U.S. forces fired on the hotel where journalists are staying, believing they were being fired upon from the hotel. In that Reuters update, the International Federation of Journalists is attacking both sides in the war. But over on Command Post, they’re quoting Fox saying that Iraq is using journalists as human shields.
Every journalist’s death gets more attention than any soldier’s because, of course, journalists cover journalists.
But there’s no getting around the fact that every journalist covering this war put his or her life at risk. And let’s not forget — my fellow laptop pundits — that they risked their lives to get us the news.
: UPDATE: The NY Times summarizes the danger: 10 journalists killed in this war.
