The war in Afghanistan is proving to be dangerous for the media. Late Monday morning, as the Phoenix was going to press, Reuters confirmed that four journalists had been killed following an ambush on the road to Kabul. A week earlier, three Western reporters died in the northeast part of the country during a battle between the Taliban and the US-backed Northern Alliance.

For reporters intent on getting the story, risk-taking in such a chaotic environment is inevitable, even necessary. What’s vital, says Kavita Menon, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), is that such risks not be undertaken without the best available information.

"Unfortunately, covering war is a dangerous business, and I think journalists who do this kind of work know that," Menon says. "All we can do is help journalists be better informed about what those risks are." With the Taliban now on the run, she says, hundreds of reporters are entering Afghanistan. At such an uncertain time, Menon urges that reporters stay in close contact with their editors or — in the case of freelancers — with the CPJ, which may be able to intervene and help journalists who find themselves in trouble.

Boston Globe editor Marty Baron, who’s rotated about a half-dozen reporters through the region, says his message to the troops has been one of safety first. "We want our people who are there protecting themselves as best they can," he says. "We have forbidden them from doing anything that would put them at extra risk. The story is not worth the death of any of our colleagues."

One reporter unusually well-versed in those risks is Brock Meeks, chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC.com. In 1989 and ’90, Meeks covered the mujahideen’s battle against the Soviet-supported Afghan government for the San Francisco Chronicle. He recalls reporters who paid money to be taken into Afghanistan only to be abandoned, sold to a rival faction, or killed.

"The saying was, you can buy an Afghan’s loyalty for 15 minutes," Meeks says. "I spent weeks getting to know people, just building up relationships. There’s a long history of journalists’ being taken for a ride, putting their lives in grave danger just wanting to get the story."

Of course, even careful reporters can find themselves caught up in the fighting — as Meeks himself did when, he says, he was the sole survivor of a rocket attack on a group of about 15 mujahideen fighters. After pulling a piece of shrapnel out of his wrist, Meeks says he carried his mortally wounded translator on his back, handed the body over to some locals, and wandered alone for about 12 hours before finding a Red Crescent field hospital.

Explaining that he was going through a difficult divorce at the time, he says, "I kind of had a death wish, and I took a lot of chances. I didn’t care if I got whacked or whatever. I just didn’t care."

For more information on the dangers facing journalists in Afghanistan, go to the CPJ’s Web site, at www.cpj.org.

Issue Date: November 22 - 29, 2001

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