{"id":5049,"date":"2015-03-18T12:37:50","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T07:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pakistanpressfoundation.org\/?p=79392"},"modified":"2015-03-18T12:37:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T07:37:50","slug":"targeting-reporter-in-conflict-zone-makes-it-difficult-to-cover-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/targeting-reporter-in-conflict-zone-makes-it-difficult-to-cover-both-sides\/","title":{"rendered":"Targeting reporter in conflict zone makes it difficult to cover both sides"},"content":{"rendered":" $\"Targeting$

KARACHI: Renowned Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, who has spent decades documenting Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories of Palestine, once remarked that it was a reporter\u2019s \u201cjob to monitor the centres of power\u201d. Jean-Pierre Perrin, a war correspondent for more than 30 years argued in his talk held on Tuesday at the Alliance Fran\u00e7aise that it was this very duty, the act of witnessing and documenting blatant violations of war, that had become increasingly difficult with time.<\/p>\n

A war correspondent specialising in the Middle East, Mr Perrin has extensively covered conflict in numerous countries and regions: Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Kurdistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria among many others. Beginning his career with the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Mr Perrin has worked for the AFP, and currently writes for Lib\u00e9ration and Politique Internationale.<\/p>\n

The journalist pointed out that while it was easy \u201cto be a political journalist in France or, for that matter, parts of Europe, it is more difficult to cover the Middle East\u201d. He said that while the 1980s\u2019 Iran-Iraq war was \u201cone of the toughest wars\u201d he had covered; he also had the rare opportunity to see a war first-hand.<\/p>\n

Afghan mujahideen were good companions, and they took care of reporters, says veteran French war correspondent<\/p>\n

At that time the concept of reporters embedding with one party or the other was less common and it allowed Mr Perrin to witness and report more freely. \u201cSince the regime wasn\u2019t organised, you could do whatever you wanted, and I ended up spending a lot of time at the front. I saw war for what it was really like: I saw lots of casualties and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had similar experiences when covering the Afghan war with the then Soviet Union in the late 1980s. \u201cAt that time the mujahideen didn\u2019t question which newspaper you worked for, and what you wrote. It was very easy to embed with the [Afghan] mujahideen. It was a struggle but I have good memories of that time. You had to walk for weeks, and it was difficult to communicate since the mujahideen didn\u2019t speak English. But they were good companions, and they took care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the current conflicts in the Middle East, he said, this sort of reporting, where the correspondent could cover both sides, switching as they wish, was becoming increasingly difficult. \u201cI don\u2019t think we can cover [now] without embedding with somebody [some party]. For instance, it\u2019s easy now to embed with the Americans, but then you can\u2019t cover both sides. It is very pitiful to cover only one side.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the reasons it had become increasingly difficult to report without embedding, Mr Perrin emphasised was due to journalists becoming targets themselves. For instance, after he left his post in Baghdad in 2006, the colleague who replaced him was kidnapped by Iraqi militants.<\/p>\n

The Syrian conflict, Mr Perrin said, became difficult to cover for similar reasons. \u201cI haven\u2019t gone back to Syria since 2013. If you do go, you will be kidnapped in two to three days.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why no reporter has gone. It is quite difficult for me to go back to Aleppo: two of my good friends were kidnapped in Syria. And in 2013, my colleague [the war correspondent] Marie Colvin and my good friend, Remi Ochlik, were killed. I was spared because I had left a day before.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a sharp contrast to Iraq and Syria, the easiest conflict to report on, according to the reporter, is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n

The main reason, Mr Perrin said, was due the small size of the occupied territories of Palestine and an ease with which reporters could cross the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go from reporting on a demonstration in Ramallah or Jenin [in the West Bank, Palestine] in the morning to Israel in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French war correspondent ended his talk on a bit of a downer saying that he was not very optimistic about the current conflicts in Syria and Iraq. \u201cI have no hope because so many countries are involved \u2014 Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.<\/p>\n

One of them, some of them, or all of them, have interests in making the conflict longer. I also don\u2019t see reconciliation between the different communities in Iraq; torture is like an institution now. You torture [your captive] because you like it, because you want to break him, because you derive pleasure from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talk is part of an ongoing series \u2018Open Doors in Pakistan\u2019, a collaboration between the Alliance Fran\u00e7aise de Karachi and the Alliance Fran\u00e7aise de Lahore and various institutes to create, according to the organisers, \u201ca dialogue between French academics and intellectuals, and their Pakistani counterparts\u201d.<\/p>\n

DAWN<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Targeting reporter in conflict zone makes it difficult to cover both sides<\/a> appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$\"Targeting$ KARACHI: Renowned Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, who has spent decades documenting Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories of Palestine, once remarked that it was a reporter’s “job to monitor the centres of power”. Jean-Pierre Perrin, a war correspondent for more than 30 years argued in his talk held on Tuesday at the Alliance Française that […]<\/p>\n