How much of Bush's Iraq can now be covered by Western journalists?
About 2%, according to New York Times journalist Dexter Filkins, now back from Baghdad on a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. Filkins claims that "98% of Iraq, and even most of Baghdad, has now become 'off-limits' for Western journalists."
There are, he says, many situations in Iraq "even too dangerous for Iraqi reporters to report on". (Such journalists, working for Western news outlets, "live in constant fear of their association with the newspaper being exposed, which could cost them their lives". Filkins added: "Most of the Iraqis who work for us don't even tell their families that they work for us.")
How many journalists and "media support workers" have died in Iraq this year?
Twenty journalists and six media support workers. The first to die in 2006 was Mahmoud Za'al, a 35-year-old correspondent for Baghdad TV, covering an assault by Sunni insurgents on two US-held buildings in Ramadi, capital of al-Anbar province, on January 25. He was reportedly first wounded in both legs and then, according to witnesses, killed in a US air strike. (The US denied launching an air strike in Ramadi that day.)
The most recent death was Ahmed Riyadh al-Karbouli, also of Baghdad TV, also in Ramadi, who was assassinated by insurgents on September 18. The latest death of a "media support worker" occurred on August 27: "A guard employed by the state-run daily newspaper Al-Sabah was killed when an explosive-packed car detonated in the building's garage."
In all, 80 journalists and 28 media support workers have died since the invasion of 2003. Compare these figures to journalistic deaths in other US wars: World War II (68), Korea (17), Vietnam (71).
more facts here
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ05Ak02.html