Slain Journalists Memorialized

By: Connie Cass, Associated Press Writer (AP) Some were caught in the crossfire of conflicts they covered. Others died in car or helicopter crashes. And evidence suggests 17 of the 31 journalists who died on the job last year were targeted because of their reporting.

"In many cases, they knew that their efforts to get close to the story placed them in danger," Joe Urschel, executive director of the Newseum, said of the reporters, photographers, broadcasters, and news people who lost their lives around the world in 2002.

Their deaths bring to 1,475 the toll of journalists who died as a result of injury or illness while covering the news, from 1812 to 2002. As the sun painted a rainbow of colors across the spiraling glass memorial Friday morning, journalists and family members began reading each name before a ceremony to add the new names.

Already, names are mounting for next year's service.

At least a dozen journalists died while covering the war in Iraq, and two more are missing, said Susan Bennett, director of international exhibits for the Freedom Forum, which is dedicated to free speech and free press. The foundation funds the Newseum, Washington's interactive museum of news.

Names of the war dead, including NBC News reporter David Bloom, Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large Michael Kelly, and Associated Press Television News cameraman Nazeh Darwazeh, will be added in 2004.

This year's list includes Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in January 2002 while researching militants and terrorism in Pakistan. "He was stalked and kidnapped and brutally murdered because of who he was and what he was doing," Bennett said. "That happens every year in countries that we're not as familiar with, to reporters whose names are not household words."

A newspaper editor and a broadcaster were shot in separate incidents in Colombia; both had received death threats. In Russia, attacks on two editors and a reporter were linked to their investigative reporting. Journalists in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, and the Philippines also appear to have been killed because of their work, the foundation said.

Two journalists died in gunfire while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One was struck by a U.S. tank during military exercises in Kuwait. Others died in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Venezuela.

Alongside Pearl, Americans on this year's list are:

* Larry Greene, 50, a photographer with KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, killed in a Navy helicopter crash in the North Arabian Gulf.

* Photographer David Gerdrum, 48, and reporter Jennifer Hawkins Hinderliter, 22, killed in an auto accident on assignment for KRTV in Great Falls, Mont.

* Freelance reporter Robert I. Friedman, 51, who died of heart complications resulting from a rare disease contracted while reporting in Bombay, India.

* Philippe Wamba, 31, editor in chief of the Web site Africana.com, who died in a car accident while doing research in Kenya.

Journalists Memorial List

The 31 names added Friday to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va. They are grouped by the countries where they died, with the location of their news organizations in parentheses, followed by dates of death or disappearance in 2002:

BAHRAIN:

Larry Greene, KCBS-TV (Los Angeles), Sept. 6.

BANGLADESH:

Harunur Rashid, Dainik Purbanchal (Bangladesh), March 2.

BRAZIL:

Tim Lopes, TV Globo (Brazil), Sept. 30

Domingos Savio Brandao Lima Jr., Folha do Estado (Brazil), Sept. 30.

COLOMBIA:

Hector Sandoval, RCN Television (Colombia), April 12.

Orlando Sierra Hernandez, La Patria (Colombia), Feb. 1.

Efrain Alberto Varela Noriega, Radio Meridiano 70 (Colombia), June 28.

INDIA:

Ram Chander Chaterpatti, Poora Sach (India), Nov. 21.

Paritosh Pandey, Jansatta Express (India), April 14.

ISRAEL:

Imad Abu Zahra, freelance (Israel), July 12.

Raffaele Ciriello, freelance (Israel), March 13.

KENYA:

Philippe Wamba, Africana.com (United States), Sept. 11.

KUWAIT:

Patrick Bourrat, TF1 Television (France), Dec. 22.

NEPAL:

Nava Raj Sharma, Kadam (Nepal), kidnapped June 1.

PAKISTAN:

Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal (New York), disappeared Jan. 23.

Shahid Soomro, Kawish (Pakistan), Oct. 20.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Ben Taumai, FM100 (Papua New Guinea), Dec. 14.

PHILIPPINES:

Sonny Alcantara, Kokus (Philippines), Aug. 22.

Edgar Damalerio, Zamboanga Scribe and DXKP Radio (Philippines), May 13.

RUSSIA:

Igor Gareyev, Krasnoyarsk Regional Broadcasting Co. (Russia), April 28.

Valery Ivanov, Togliatti Review (Russia), April 29.

Sergei Kalinovsky, Moskovsky Komsomolets (Russia), body found April 1.

Natalya Pivovarova, 7 Channel (Russia), April 28.

Roddy Scott, freelance (Great Britain), date of death unknown.

Natalia Skryl, Nashe Vremya (Russia), March 8.

Konstantin Stepanov, Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta (Russia), April 28.

UGANDA:

Jimmy Higenyi, student journalist (Uganda), Jan. 12.

UNITED STATES:

David Gerdrum, KRTV (Great Falls, Mont.), Jan. 12

Jennifer Hawkins Hinderliter, KRTV (Great Falls, Mont.), Jan. 12.

Robert I. Friedman, freelance (New York), July 2.

VENEZUELA:

Jorge Tortoza, 2001 (Venezuela), April 11.