Jill Carroll's bravery
TO A WORLD increasingly suffused with media, the kidnapping of Jill Carroll in Baghdad is a reminder of the dangers that journalists face in the most dangerous war zone on earth and of the importance of foreign correspondents in explaining distant places to Americans. Iraqi gangs, which seize foreigners because they are easy targets, harm their country by restricting the flow of information to the rest of the world.
By all accounts Carroll, a freelance writer on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, has felt a deep sympathy for Iraqis. She was learning Arabic, liked the food, and moved about with minimal protection. She was visiting a dangerous neighborhood in Baghdad on Jan. 7 to interview an Iraqi politician when her translator was killed and she was kidnapped. Somebody with her sensibilities, willing to take risks, is just the kind of reporter that is needed to explain the turbulence in Iraq to Americans.
It is no surprise that the abduction has been denounced by many Iraqis. Even some among the Sunni community, where opposition to the US invasion is highest, have come out against the kidnapping. ''We condemn the abduction of journalists, who are means to conveying the truth to people," Muthana Harith al-Dhari, a spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, said. Accurate information about Iraq is of vital importance to Americans as they consider how long US troops should stay there. The Iraqi perspective is best obtained from reporters with a toe in both cultures.
Beginning with the US invasion in 2003, 60 journalists have been killed in Iraq, making it by far the most dangerous place on earth to be a reporter. One of them was Elizabeth Neuffer, foreign correspondent for the Globe, who died in an auto accident in the early stages of the conflict.
The danger has worsened as journalists have become targets by design instead of happenstance. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that most of the dead are Iraqi, doing their best to find the news in a society riven with violence. The latest casualties reported on the committee website were Mohammed Haroon, a journalist once affiliated with the Saddam Hussein regime, and Firas Maadidi and Hind Ismail, reporters for a prodemocracy newspaper. These journalists, had they lived, would have provided information and shaped opinions that could have promoted peaceful change in Iraq.
The men who abducted Carroll apparently have a different purpose -- to sow fear among news people. Doing journalism in Iraq is a tough, exhausting, and dangerous craft. Not to do it, however, would leave communication about the struggle of its people to the gunmen and suicide bombers.
