Journalists and reporters work hard each day.They work hard to get our government information
needed from rival/foreign countries or information needed just to update us about what's been going on in the world. However, what many people don't know is that people who work in the field of journalism aren't truly ever safe. That is because they expose themselves out there. They have their names on articles they've written, their faces probably shown on television from possibly an interview or a Q&A session. If the article they've written is about particular world events, world leaders, high-powered groups, everyone could and can read what they've written. And if it involves them and what they've been doing and if what the journalist investigated was true and if what the journalist finds out or is close to finding out is almost true, well, they're in trouble. Doesn't matter if it's something small, no one would want something they planned or is planning to be foiled. I'd think not. That is why journalism is such a dangerous profession. There has been a large amount of journalists killed, murdered, tortured, taken captive, and unlawfully been put in jail just because of an article. A single article could put someone's life in danger. Like I've mentioned, journalists are always in danger. If they are based in other parts of the world such as: Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, or Somalia, they never know when they'll be seeing the last of daylight they'll ever see. Going to these countries could be nearly fatal even just by standing in the middle of civilians, something could happen to them. They could get bombed, captured, or in Sardasht Osman's case, being beat down in northern Iraq and shot multiple times. Sardasht Osman was a 23 year old was a reporter for Ashtiname and was a regular contributor to independent news Web sites Sbei, Awene, Hawlati, and Lvinpress. Police say that they found his body just a little after midnight on May 6, 2010. His brother stated that Osman may have been abducted because of a past article he wrote about a high-ranking Kurdistan Regional Government official. Osman's brother, Bashdar Osman, told us that his brother had gotten threats over the phone telling him that he should stay out of government affairs. However, it was his job. And this is where I believe our government should do more for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists I think, have done a pretty well job with helping with impunity. However, many journalists are still jailed and being killed today. And since these journalists are just doing their jobs, I think our government should reach out a bit more to help save journalist, reporters, anyone related to journalism. Yeah, the journalist was found on your land, or they may have been suspected of doing something or being something unkind to your country, but we can't let them be jailed because of a suspected doing. I may not run their government and they may just wanna be safe and collected, but we can't let them take our journalists and reporters like this. Journalists and reporters are quite young nowadays just like Osman, and so therefore they have a bigger future ahead of them. So in conclusion to this, I believe our government should govern and protect our field workers so that in the future the percentage of killed journalists will go down. I don't think anyone wants to see another faithful hero murdered of unjustified reasons. It's their job.
Actual Article: http://cpj.org/2010/05/reporter-abducted-slain-in-northern-iraq.php#more
May 7, 2010
