Conflict, life and Job

“I thought of my wife and family, and I was overcome with shame. An interview that seemed crucial hours earlier now seemed absurd and reckless,” reminisced David Rodhe, a New York Times journalist who was held hostage by the Taliban for seven long months.

The South Asia correspondent of the New York Times, who reported on Af-Pak for seven years before he was kidnapped in November is one of the many journalists who paid the price for abiding by the ethos of their profession. It could be the lure of adventure or passion for the profession that made them choose a conflict zone as their workplace.
In 2001, the world saw the gruesome images of the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl’s beheading in Pakistan. Hundreds like him are still out there with their cameras, pens and note-pads, covering the war in these conflict areas.

Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and assassination happened at a time when the Islamic extremists’ rage against the American forces was at its peak. Annihilated at the war-front and frustrated in their mission, they wanted revenge against the US and the western world, to remind these adversaries about their own superiority. Daniel Pearl, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, fell victim to these volatile sentiments.



In the emails sent by the Al-Qaeda prior to his murder, Daniel Pearl was shown in an appalling state – blindfolded, hands tied back and face bruised. The terrorists said that Pearl’s treatment was in reciprocation to the condition of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

Over the years, journalists have become vulnerable targets in conflict zones, where miscreants use them to settle scores and convey tough messages to their enemies.
In a message sent by Al-Qaeda during the Daniel Pearl incident, it said: “this cycle will continue till no American journalist can enter Pakistan."

The message came across stronger, when it was reported that Pearl’s body had been cut into ten pieces and buried in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Karachi. Experts say that Pearl’s Jewish roots brought him the excruciating torture, which another non-Jew might have escaped.


In Afghanistan, in the last one year, 13 journalists have been kidnapped, both local and international - David Rodhe, Tahir Ludin, Sultan Munadi and Stephen Farrell, to name a few. But the kidnapping of New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Farell and David Rodhe shook the western world, while local reporters who lost their lives went unnoticed.

Identifying the potential opportunities of a foreign blood Taliban started targeting the foreign correspondents who came to their country for ‘fair reporting Not only could they demand massive ransom amounts but also seek to have prisoners released
From the personal accounts of the foreign journalists kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, it is observed that Taliban do not physically harass them. It is the local reporters accompanying the foreigners as translators who face the brunt.

Sultan Munaidy, a local correspondent who was kidnapped along with the Italian journalist Stephen Farrell, was shot dead while Farell was left alive. Tahir Ladin, who was the translator for New York Times Journalist David Rohdell, was lucky; his life was spared except for sporadic torture for being a ‘friend’ of the enemy.

Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan went missing in Somalia when their respective countries refused to pay the ransom of US $2.5 million. Brennan and Lindhout, a freelance television and print reporter from Sylvan Lake, were kidnapped on August 23 2009 near Mogadishu. A Somali journalist accompanying them was also abducted.



Meanwhile North Korea, suspected of clandestine nuclear operations, officially confirmed that that it was holding two American journalists. North Korean soldiers had arrested Laura Ling and Euna Lee who were chasing a story all the way to the China - North Korea border while their cameraman and guide escaped and informed the authorities. They were sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment on charges of espionage and entering North Korea illegally and committing "hostile acts". They were freed after massive intervention by the US government.

In many countries where the Government is under scrutiny for various reasons, freedom of the press is curbed in the name of ‘disrupting peace’ and those journalists who dare to break the law are arrested. Recently in Sri Lanka’s Eelam war, many journalists were arrested and killed.

Freedom of speech, fair and unbiased reporting as set out in the book of ethics for journalists - this is what every journalist tries to accomplish; and while covering conflict zones, the journalist strays outside that bubble of being a journalist-observer and suddenly ends up being a participant in his own story.