Roy Greenslade: If journalists are frightened off reporting, evil will have won

John Cantlie has been coerced into using his journalistic skills to front a pseudo news report (Photo: AP)

29 October 2014

The renewed video appearance of the Islamic State captive John Cantlie is the most explicit illustration of the value placed on journalists in the conflict.

He has been coerced into using his journalistic skills to front a pseudo news report — supposedly from the Kurdish city of Kobane. It is, of course, IS propaganda aimed at convincing people that IS is in the act of taking control of the city.

We now know that one of the men detained alongside Cantlie, the American photographer James Foley, was subjected to torture before he was beheaded, so we all accept that Cantlie is acting under extreme duress.

IS manages to be both barbaric and crudely media-savvy. At the weekend, it abducted eight media employees from a satellite TV channel in the Kurdish city of Mosul in northern Iraq — four reporters, a cameraman, two technicians, and an administrator.

It is significant that they were separately captured from their homes rather than at the station. IS may well use them as it has Cantlie.

The effect of IS’s targeting of journalists is to prevent any coverage of their activities by independent international media. In this, they are not alone.

There is a concerted effort by lawless groups across the Middle East region, and further into Pakistan, to restrict reporting. Press freedom cannot exist, let alone flourish, when journalists are murdered, subjected to intimidation and forced into exile or cowed into silence.

A report issued yesterday by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reveals the global extent of anti-journalist behaviour. It has compiled figures which show that 370 journalists have been murdered over the past 10 years in direct retaliation for their work.

That figure, however, is not as telling as the fact that in 90% of the cases, the murderers are still at large. Why? Because, says the report, governments do nothing to bring the killers to book.

The report, “The road to justice”, argues passionately that press freedom is in peril because of impunity in the killing of journalists. It has been released ahead of the first UN-recognised “International day to end impunity for crimes against journalists”, taking place on Sunday.

Burrowing down into the report, we discover countries outside the Middle East where anti-press violence appears to be endemic, such as Somalia, the Philippines, Mexico and Russia.

A couple years ago I sat on a panel with the report’s lead author, Elisabeth Witchel, following a string of journalists’ murders in Mexico, largely because of the power exercised by drug cartels.

For a while, the situation seemed to improve, but two weeks ago a Mexican doctor who acted as a part-time journalist to expose crime was abducted and killed. That has prompted Unesco’s director-general, to call for a proper investigation.

That is a good sign, which the CPJ is likely to applaud because one of its strongest recommendations is that national governments and UN bodies condemn all acts of violence against journalists.

It is not special pleading to back that call. Journalists may appear unsympathetic here in Britain. But never forget those who risk their life by going abroad to try to tell us what is happening. We, the people, need them and we should urge governments to protect them.

Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism, City University London, and writes a blog for the Guardian

Roy Greenslade: If journalists are frightened off reporting, evil will have won

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