Middle East Warlords Use Journalists as Poker Chips

Michael Hedges April 9, 2007

Every moment is a high-stakes poker game in the Middle East. News reporting is no longer about observation. Reporters are now bargaining chips.

Palestinian journalists staged vigils to protest BBC’s Gaza reporter Alan Johnston’s kidnapping, passing now nearly a month. Still, nothing about his circumstances is known, officially. BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook, in an email to ftm last Wednesday (April 4), carefully expressed the frustration – and fear – faced by every news director:

“It is now over three weeks since Alan disappeared. We have not heard anything since then – no word from his abductors and no demands. We are working closely with the Palestinian authorities and remain hopeful he will eventually be released, but obviously we are increasingly concerned for him.”

Khamail Khalaf was found dead of a gunshot to the head April 5th in western Baghdad. She was a free-lance reporter for Radio Free Iraq abducted April 3rd.  She leaves three children. New RFE/RL President Jeff Gedmin said, “Mrs. Khamail was a courageous journalist who wanted the best for her country and believed that the people of Iraq deserve a peaceful and prosperous future. She died for that cause.”(see full RFE/RL statement)

The media worker death toll in Iraq last week was particularly chilling. Thaer Ahmed Jabr, Deputy Director of satellite channel Baghdad TV, was killed in a truck bombing that targeted the TV station. Gunmen kidnapped Khamel Mohsin last Tuesday (April 3). She had worked for Radio Sawa. Her body was found the following day.

“Journalists are no longer just collateral victims of the war,” replied Reporters Without Frontiers (RSF) in a statement recounting the 158 journalists killed in Iraq since 2003. “They are also often carefully chosen targets, and this has been so for some time…”

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) General Secretary Aiden White called the Palestinian Authority’s absence – or hollowness – of attention to Alan Johnston’s plight “unconscionable."  "Every day that passes jeopardizes Alan’s safety even further and we support our Palestinian colleagues in their work to make sure that he is released quickly and unharmed.”

The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS)-Gaza, the IFJ affiliate, organized the three-day strike. So commonplace are PJS-Gaza protests that they’ve set up a “protest tent” in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Constant attention has had little or no impact on Middle Eastern terrorists and warlords bent on targeting, kidnapping and killing journalists. Warlords, obviously, don’t read the press releases. Journalists, particularly from the West, have become bargaining chips – sometimes for money, sometimes for trades, sometimes for revenge.

Alan Johnston’s kidnappers are widely believed to be from the same clan that kidnapped and held for two weeks a Fox News crew, releasing them only when they “converted” to Islam. Killers of Khamer Monsin, Thaer Ahmed Jabr and Khamail Khalaf are simply thugs.

Where authority in conflict zones is subjugated by clan and warlord rivalry and civil society is as thin as an AK-47 trigger the Western notion of a “press freedom” safe haven ceases to exist.

Despite murders and kidnappings, journalists – perhaps to the chagrin of those looking for a rapid return to the 12th century sans media – will continue covering the Middle East…and the next conflict zone.

For the warlords the weight of all the ink and all the air-time will inevitably overwhelm their benefit of darkness. They will not flee quietly, but flee they will under the spotlight like the vermin they are.

ftm Follow Up & Comments

Alan Johnston Not Free Yet - June 3, 2007
Generally welcomed Friday was the video of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in captivity. Most sources and experts agree that negotiations for his freedom remain difficult....MORE

Palestinian Security Chief Rules Out Force to Free BBC Reporter - May 2, 2007
Saying that negotiations to free kidnapped BBC Gaza reporter Alan Johnston have reached a “sensitive” stage, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh wants the world to know that he’s got the message....MORE

Terror Group Claims It Has Killed Alan Johnston – No Independent Verification - April 16, 2007 (information as of 1130 CET)

A group calling itself the Brigades of Tawheed and Jihad said in a faxed statement to news organizations that said it has killed kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston to consolidate its demands for release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. "We are deeply concerned about what we are hearing, but we stress at this stage it is rumor with no independent verification," the BBC said.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it was "urgently" looking into the claim. Palestinian authorities have said they had no information on any possible killing.

The Brigades of Tawheed and Jihad group is not known in Gaza, but is known elsewhere in the Middle East and is said to have links to Al-Qaeda. The Sunday Times(UK) reported that the group issued a demand for the release of an Iraqi woman who participated in the 2005 bombing of the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman, Jordan.

Johnston, BBC's Gaza correspondent, was taken at gunpoint on March 12, 2007. There had been no public word by his kidnappers on his whereabouts or why he had been taken Johnston was the last foreign correspondent actually based in Gaza City and he was making plans to leave at the end of March.

The BBC said it had been told as late as last Thursday by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that Johnston was "safe and well," and had again appealed for his release. On the same day the BBC, CNN, Sky News, and the English language version of  al-Jazeera broadcast simultaneously a live program on Thursday which paid tribute to the journalist's work and highlighted the dangers of working in the Gaza Strip.

Broadcasters Rally to BBC Journalist Kidnapped in Gaza - April 11, 2007

Concern over BBC corresponent Alan Johnston's plight as a hostage in Palestine is turning to disgust. All the usual NGO's have chimed in, media organizations, the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontiers. The pitch is turning from buzzing complaint to chomping anger.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) have racheted up the clamor, with the clear intent of pressuring the Palestinian Authority to bring an end to Alan Johnston's ordeal and, equally, pressure all governing agencies with reprehensible lack of attention to criminal elements hijacking press freedom for the sake of money or power.

"Journalists must never become victims of their own profession," said EBU Secretary General Jean Réveillon. (see complete EBU/WBU statement here)

NGO declarations might seem hollow to governing entities more interested in territorial survival. The EBU, to paraphrase a famous criminal, has no army. But, it does. It has an army of spotlights, cameras, microphones.

The Palestinian Authority needs to make clear to the warlords holding Alan Johnston that he must be released now, without conditions. And this message must go out to all marginally attendent governments. Journalists, by their very nature, are paying attention.