On yesterday's "Reliable Sources," Howard Kurtz spoke with BBC Washington correspondent Katty Kay about her colleague Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza and held captive in Gaza before finally being released last week after 114 days. Johnston, as it turns out, was the only Western full-time journalist based in Gaza. And now, he's not going back:
KURTZ: Early we had FOX's Steve Centanni and his cameraman kidnapped in Gaza, eventually released. Has Gaza under Hamas just become too dangerous a place for journalists to go?
KAY: Allan says he's not going to go back. He was committed. He's not going back there. And there are no other western journalists there.
KURTZ: So the answer is, in effect...
KAY: It's become too dangerous.
KURTZ: ... we can't cover it anymore?
KAY: And that's one of the tragedies of something like this happening, is that we need to know the story. When journalists get kidnapped, the story dies, because we don't hear from them anymore.
The Guardian's Peter Preston worries about this, noting that the story doesn't end with Johnston's release and that, on the contrary, it opens up new avenues of possibility in terms of Hamas' role in governing the region, since Johnston himself surmises that it was Hamas' takeover and having "stuck the heat on in a big way" (Preston also wonders rather churlishly whether Johnston received too effusive a welcome home — classy). With Johnston one of 40 journalists kidnapped around the world in 2007 — with 13 killed and 17 still in captivity — and over a hundred media deaths this year, the deterrents to coverage are obvious (but also, note that over half the kidnappings and the lion's share of the murders are Iraqis). The loss of information from these regions is a big problem, obviously — and what also may end up being a problem might be the parachuting of ambitious, unaffiliated freelancers into the region without the resources to back them up with security and operational savvy. One also can't help but recall the case of Daniel Pearl, made all the more prominent of late owing to the movie A Mighty Heart, as a reminder of how wrong things can go and how quickly. Is that kind of risk worth it? That's for journalists and journalistic organizations to decide, but in the meantime, in Gaza, the answer seems to be no.
Johnston's ordeal must not halt coverage of Gaza [Guardian UK]
BBC Gaza journalist Alan Johnston freed [Reuters]
Related:
Iraq: Journalists In Danger [Committee To Protect Journalists]