By: Greg Mitchell During the first week of the war on Iraq, reporters "embedded" with U.S. troops, as expected, have filed hundreds of stories and remained the focus of worldwide attention. Going into the war, news organizations, reacting to criticism that too much of their reporting would be coming from journalists who had "bonded" with the military and must operate under miltiary restrictions, said that they had just as many free roaming or "unilateral" reporters in place to provide unfettered reporting from the field.
It hasn't quite worked out that way. Due to the vast size of Iraq, official warnings from the military, and severe danger (some non-American unilaterals have already been killed or wounded), little has been heard from or of the free-roaming American journalists since the war began last week.
On Wednesday,
E&P received a message from veteran
Chicago Tribune reporter Laurie Goering. She has been based in Kuwait as a "unilateral" for several weeks, has gotten into southern Iraq herself, and has also served as a local bureau chief for the newspaper, remaining closely in touch with both embedded and unembedded journalists in the field. Her message serves as a chilling reminder of what reporters of all status now face in covering the war near the front lines:
"Briefly," Goering wrote, "it now appears that unilateral reporters cannot operate in Iraq with the current security situation without being sort of unofficially embedded with troops, or at least being able to camp at night near them. Unilaterals have had mortars and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] fired at them by Iraqi troops. Lack of supply is also an enormous problem. Unilaterals who are up closer to Baghdad are having to abandon their vehicles as they cannot source gasoline to keep them running, even with military help (the military runs on diesel, and there are no diesel vehicles to rent in Kuwait where people started, hence the problem).
"I hear a small group of unilaterals up there are actually siphoning the last of their gas into one vehicle, getting in together, and trying to make it to Baghdad in that vehicle."
---
See
E&P's complete coverage of
Iraq and the Press.
---
E&P welcomes letters to the editor:
letters@editorandpublisher.com.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here