Baghdad still too dangerous US journalists say
Much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit despite a recent drop in violence attributed to the build-up of US forces, a poll of American journalists in Iraq said on November 28, 2007.
Some 87 percent of 111 journalists working for 29 news organisations said at least half of Baghdad is too dangerous for a Western journalist to visit, with the capital's Shi'ite-dominated Sadr City enclave the most dangerous spot in Iraq. Eighteen percent said the entire city of Baghdad is too dangerous for travel.
Most US journalists surveyed have travelled to danger spots such as Sadr City, either under the protection of private security guards or the US military.
Many American journalists believe media coverage has painted too rosy a picture of the conflict, the survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed.
A separate Pew poll released on Tuesday showed that 48 percent of Americans believe the US military effort in Iraq is going very or fairly well, up from 34 percent in June, amid signs of declining Iraqi civilian casualties and progress against Islamist militants such as al Qaeda in Iraq.
But most journalists said they believe violence and the threat of violence have increased during their time in Iraq.
Much of the danger is faced by Iraqis, who often do most of the reporting outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Fifty-eight percent of US news organisations have had local Iraqi staff killed or kidnapped within the past year, the survey said. About two-thirds of news outlets said local staff face physical or verbal threats at least several times a month.
"Above all, the journalists – most of them veteran war correspondents – describe conditions in Iraq as the most perilous they have ever encountered, and this above everything else is influencing the reporting," the authors said in a report that accompanied the data.
At least 122 journalists and 41 media support staff have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists says. About 85 percent of those killed were Iraqis.
Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism poll was conducted from September 28 to November 7.
Some 67 percent of those surveyed are at least somewhat concerned that the accuracy and completeness of their reports have suffered because of ongoing security problems that limit their access to the country.
"Eight in 10 journalists believe conditions have deteriorated for reporters since their own first posting in the country," the survey's authors said.
