FLASHBACK: Exactly 3 Years Ago, Editors Ordered U.S. Reporters Out of Baghdad

By: E&P Staff Three years ago--March 18, 2003--E&P's Joe Strupp wrote the following piece in the closing hours before the U.S. attack on Iraq began.

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by Joe Strupp

"We just decided that the risk of the assignment and staying overcame the expected benefits of being there," said Chicago Tribune Foreign Editor Colin McMahon, referring to his lone Baghdad reporter, Ernie Torriero, who was leaving the Iraqi capital on Monday night. "We decided he should pull out." The Tribune is just the latest paper to evacuate a reporter from Baghdad.

Every editor who spoke with E&P said none of their Baghdad-based reporters had asked to leave, despite the pending danger. Even reporter Scott Peterson of the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor, whose wife is expecting to give birth to their fourth child in two weeks, is ready to stay put, according to Monitor International News Editor Dave Scott. "He wants to stay," said Scott, who said he had not decided whether to bring Peterson back. "If we are leaning to any side, it is to pull him out."

"We are reviewing it hour by hour, but our intention is to stay," said Bernd Debusmann, news editor for the Americas at Reuters America, which has 20 broadcast and print staffers in Baghdad, including three photographers and five print reporters. "It is entirely voluntary for them, but so far no one is interested in leaving." Debusmann, who was in Baghdad during the 1991 Persian Gulf War as a Reuters correspondent, said the timeline for having reporters leave was likely to end Wednesday night. "The window of opportunity is closing rapidly," he said.

Los Angeles Times Foreign Editor Marjorie Miller said that a final decision on removing its reporters from Baghdad had not been made.

The New York Times on Monday ordered photographer Tyler Hicks and reporter John Burns out of Baghdad, according to Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis, who said they would remain elsewhere in the war region. "The risk inherent in remaining [in Baghdad] outweighed any journalistic advantage," she said.

As war with Iraq looms, newspaper editors are wrestling with the difficult decision of whether to move reporters out of Baghdad before the expected attack or let them stay in hopes of getting a front-line view of the invasion. While numerous broadcast outlets such as NBC, ABC, and others have already left the Iraq capital, along with U.N. inspectors and diplomats, newspaper reporters and photographers, for the most part, are staying. But The Associated Press reported that the number of foreign journalists in Baghdad had dropped from 450 a week ago to 300 on Monday.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that its three staffers in Baghdad would remain there for the foreseeable future, but said they could be called back at any time.

USA Today and The Wall Street Journal have no staff in the Iraqi capital.

"It is a tricky situation," said Dele Olojede, foreign editor of Newsday in Melville, N.Y., which has a photographer and reporter in Baghdad, with no plans to remove them yet. "I simply don't know what we will do."

For some newsroom leaders, Bush's ultimatum makes pulling reporters out of Baghdad easier. In other cases, editors determined that having reporters on the scene is risky, but worth it for proper coverage. Still, most editors remained unsure of what to do, but admit they must put safety first and determine their plans soon.

"I am confident that our reporter is relatively safe, but it is unpredictable," said Andrew Ross, foreign editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, which has one reporter in Baghdad. "We have discussed it a lot and will make a decision soon."

The Associated Press would not discuss specifics of its coverage plans, but was making decisions about its deployment in Iraq daily, said Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll. "The AP continues to cover the story," she said. "We have copy on the wire today from Baghdad."