Filkins, 'NYT' War Reporter, Says 'Anarchy' Curtails Iraq Reporting

[sabra]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003122985

Filkins, 'NYT' War Reporter, Says 'Anarchy' Curtails Iraq Reporting

NEW YORK Journalists are in danger nearly everywhere in Iraq these days, making it nearly impossible to report, and it only seems to be getting worse, said New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, speaking Thursday at the offices of the Committee to Protect Journalists in Manhattan. Filkins, who will begin a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University this month and start work on a book, said that 98% of Iraq, and even most of Baghdad, has now become "off-limits" for Western journalists.

Filkins, one of the longest-lasting and most-honored reporters in Iraq, said that many situations lately have become even too dangerous for the Iraqi reporters to report on. He described the current climate as "anarchy," and, when asked if the country was already involved in a civil war, he said, "Yeah, sure."

Asked what advice he had for a reporter from a small paper going to Iraq now without the kinds of money and backup that the Times was able to afford him (or previous reporting experience in Iraq), Filkins thought for a moment, weighing the idea, then repleid: "Don't go."

The most that the Times reporters can do these days, said Filkins, is "very carefully set up an appointment with someone" using back channels and meet with them under tight security. "We can't go to car bombings anymore," he said, describing how even getting out of a car to report would expose a Western journalist to mob attacks and kidnapping.

[kstewart33]

1. Great post. Thank you. eom

[kenny blankenship]

2. He just doesn't want anyone to hear all the good news coming out of Iraq

We've turned the corner so many times there, we're bound to have gone around the whole block now four or five times already.

[donco6]

3. snort!

Good one.

Seriously, tho, I was wondering what had happened to news reporting from Iraq. This explains everything.

[AnneD]

6. My question for you is....

are we making a right turn or a left turn.:spray: God they are a loony as J Edgar Hoover.

[gratuitous]

4. It's getting to the point where the GOP isn't even bitching anymore

Even the tooliest of tools seem to recognize that there's no good news to be had out of Iraq, and the usual spinmeisters have decided to drop that librul media meme that nobody's reporting all the good news.

[VegasWolf]

5. The FReakers were crowing the other day about how another classroom

in Baghdad received a brand new coat of paint. There's progress.