In Iraq, rules have changed for journalists
By Kristi Mohrbacher

Photo by Mara Auster CNN's Alex Quade answers students' questions.

"The public is as frustrated with the coverage of the Iraq war as the journalists are with their limited ability to get out and tell the story," says John McWethy, former international correspondent for ABC News.

War reporting has changed drastically in the past 30 years, and that was the topic of discussion the Oct. 23 panel "Surviving the Assignment: 21st Century War Reporting and the Age of Blackwater."

In addition to McWethy, Tim Crockett, executive director of AKE Ltd.; Mariwan Hama-Saeed, SJMC master's student, Iraqi journalist and former reporter for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting; and Alex Quade, CNN correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke on the changes in war reporting and what that means to the quality of reporting.

Crockett said improved technologies have given reporters the tools to report from the heart of the conflict and share it with the world immediately. However, journalists are facing a more hostile environment overseas, and this makes war reporting more dangerous and can affect the objectivity of the reporting, he said.

McWethy said that 9/11 marked the end of the overseas immunity that was granted to war reporters in previous wars. Now, "just being a U.S. citizen or with any sort of security detail makes you a target."

Quade pointed out that the higher risk in the field means a higher cost for accurate reporting, including the reporter's life. Already, 150 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. It's not just foreign correspondents who are in danger. Hama-Saeed said several colleagues have been lost due to assassinations or death threats that forced them to leave the country.

McWethy said that in previous wars, journalists could go almost wherever they wanted to report and investigate because they were granted immunity by both sides.

Quade reminded aspiring journalists that no matter how important the story is, "If you can't bring the story to the public, it doesn't matter." Safety must be considered, and McWethy agreed that the reporter has to "tell the story, not become the story."

Editor's note: Jack McWethy died in a skiing accident at the age of 60 in early February. More >>