Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

MEDIA: Three Names the World Should Know

Stephen Leahy

TORONTO, Canada, Nov 5 2007 (IPS) - “I am staying in Afghanistan to prove that women are brave and strong,” says Afghan journalist Farida Nekzad.

Farida Neksad with then head of USAID, Andrew Natsios. Credit: USAID

Farida Neksad with then head of USAID, Andrew Natsios. Credit: USAID

Nekzad has been threatened with death even as she attended the funeral of Zakia Zaki, a female radio broadcaster murdered by gunmen as she slept with her eight-month-old son at her home near Kabul in June.

“I was given asylum by some countries but I am not going to hide,” declared Nekzad, the current editor in chief of the Pajhwok News Agency, the sole independent news agency in Afghanistan.

“If I leave, the next woman journalist will become a target,” she told IPS.

Nekzad was in Toronto last Thursday to receive one of this year’s three International Press Freedom Awards from the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). CJFE promotes and defends free expression and press freedom and grants thousands of dollars to aid persecuted journalists in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Iraqi journalist Sahar Al-Haideri, shot and killed on Jun. 7 this year by four unidentified gunmen in Mosul, and Canadian journalist Ali Iman Sharmarke, who was killed by a remote-controlled landmine in Somalia Aug. 11, were the other award recipients.


Sahar Al-Haideri’s family received the 3,000-dollar award in a separate ceremony in Damascus because Canadian officials would not grant a travel visa. Al-Haideri reported on humanitarian issues in Iraq, including the plight of women and minority groups. Despite threats and attempts on her life that left her badly wounded and forced her to move her family to Syria for safety, she continued to write about the human rights violations of the extremist groups in her home town of Mosul.

Of the 97 journalists killed so far this year, half were in Iraq and almost all were Iraqis. Since 2001, 475 journalists have been murdered, nearly all specifically targeted because of their work. In the 10-year existence of CJFE, hardly anyone has been prosecuted for killing a reporter, said Arnold Amber, the group’s president.

Despite the mounting death toll, more and more journalists continue to stand up and speak out on behalf of truth over fear and courage in the face of oppression, Amber said.

However, “the murder of journalists has become a very serious problem for the world,” he said.

Knowing the personal dangers, why do journalists continue to report the news, asked Carol Off, CBC journalist and a member of the CJFE awards committee for a number of years

“There is a fundamental human need to tell stories…to bear witness,” Off told the more than 475 representatives of Canada’s media and foreign journalists living in exile in Canada at the award ceremony Thursday night.

“To stop storytelling is to sink into despair and stop connecting with other people,” she said.

Ali Sharmarke returned to Somalia in 1999 to help tell the stories of ordinary people of his homeland. Sharmarke, a landed immigrant, left a comfortable life in Canada and, along with Mohamed Elmi and Ahmed Abdisalam Adan, founded one of Africa’s great media success stories, a radio station called HornAfrik.

HornAfrik became known for its fair and objective coverage. Sharmarke was killed on Aug. 11 when his car drove over a remote-controlled landmine as he was returning from the funeral of another journalist, Mahad Ahmed Elmi.

“Journalists are the eyes of the world and there are those who don’t want others to see what they are doing,” said Sahal Abdulle, a Reuters photojournalist and close friend who was riding alongside Sharmarke in the same car but miraculously survived the bombing. The various groups vying for control and power believe that if you are not on their side, you are their enemy, Abdulle said in an interview.

Somalia had been relatively calm since 1999 and a free press was blossoming, but in the past year there have dramatic changes as Islamic extremists and western-backed Ethiopia fight for control over the country. Suddenly journalists are being deliberately targeted, with eight journalists murdered this year alone, he said.

“Now no one wants to touch a camera or microphone in Somalia,” Abdulle said.

Statements by the United Nations and others condemning these murders is not enough. The U.N. or some other international body needs to conduct investigations to hold those responsible accountable for their crimes, he said.

“Journalists are providing a service that benefits the whole world, and no one is protecting them,” Abdulle said.

Members of parliament and others personally petitioned Kabul’s chief of police to provide security for Farida Nekzad. His response was to offer his cell phone number and a promise to be there five minutes after the call. A promise that means nothing, said Nekzad. A laughable promise – if not for the deadly serious threat Nekzard faces.

“Practical help is needed from the outside world such as improving security for female journalists,” says Nekzard, who must change her work and home routine each day in order to prevent ambush by potential attackers.

Being a journalist in Afghanistan is extremely difficult because there are those who will kill to prevent their crimes from being exposed, she said. And it’s doubly difficult for women, with many believing they should not be reporters but should stay at home.

“Even some educated people don’t accept that women should have a public role in our society,” she said.

Despite this, there are as many as 300 female journalists in Afghanistan, a number of them trained by Nekzard, who gratefully accepted the CJFE award on behalf of women in her country.

“This gives us more energy and power and shows that we are not alone,” she said.

 
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