THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY • December 2013 Holiday Party Kicks Off OPC’s 75th Anniversary Year by Brian Byrd of World War II. And In 2014, the OPC will mark its on April 2, nine foreign 75th anniversary. As part of its dia- correspondents gathered mond jubilee, the OPC will hold a at the Algonquin Hotel’s series of events beginning with a Round Table in New holiday party in January that will York to form the OPC of kickoff the anniversary year at the America. This intrepid Club’s birthplace: The Roundtable group of men and wom- at the Algonquin Hotel on Tuesday, en launched an organi- January 7 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. zation whose presence Food, drinks and merriment will be and influence have been on hand as well as time to share sto- felt for the past 75 years. During this time, na- Senator John F. Kennedy addresses the ries about life as a journalist. Come 18th Annual Awards Dinner of the OPC. with a memorable reporting story, (Continued on Page 2) an OPC story, a story of courage or good luck. (See page 4 for details.) OPC Holds Two Panel Discussions Overseas The Club’s founding was in 1939, the year Lou Gehrig gave his “lucki- by Sonya K. Fry London recap page 3.) Both discus- sions attracted capacity audiences. est man alive” speech as he retired A Ford Foundation grant has en- from the New York Yankees, “Gone abled the OPC to take its message With the Wind” and “The Wizard abroad this year. It is an idea that PARIS RECAP: NOVEMBER 12 has been discussed for many years, of Oz” had theatrical releases and by Michael S. Serrill NBC Television began its broad- but there was never enough money On a rainy evening in Paris, some cast. That same year, Adolph Hitler to make it a reality. This November, 80 people gathered for an OPC spon- and the Nazis embarked on a series the OPC worked with the Frontline sored forum on the dangers of work- of transgressions that led to the start Club of London and the American ing in war zones around the world. University of Paris organizing pan- The panel was led by Time contribu- Inside. . . els on similar but nuanced forums, tor Vivienne Walt and CNN Interna- with Syria the focus of attention. tional correspondent Jim Bittermann, Bhutto Book Night Recap...... 2 The Paris panel was held at a par- both OPC members. Panelists in- ticularly vulnerable time. Two weeks cluded: Jerome Delay, the AP’s chief London Event Recap...... 3 before the November 12 discus- photographer for Africa; Fabio Buc- sion, two French broadcast journal- Awards Application Info ...... 4 ciarelli, who has spent the past sev- ists were kidnapped and then shot in eral years going in and out of Syria; People...... 5-10 Mali. Also, several French journal- Aidan Sullivan of Getty Images and ists have been missing in Syria since Lucie Morillon of Reporters Without People Remembered...... 10 the beginning of 2013. The audience Borders. Difficulties Covering ...... 11 talked about the dangers of reporting The consensus of the group: there and photographing and expressed has never been a more dangerous Members Who Covered JFK ...... 12 solidarity with missing colleagues. time to be a war journalist especially The London panel at the Front- in Syria. “The rules of engagement Stolley and Zapruder...... 13 line Club was attended by journal- have nothing to do with those in World War II, Vietnam, even Sara- Women Covering War Recap...... 14 ists who had just returned from Syria and were eager to exchange ideas jevo,” said Delay. “Combatants in New Books...... 16 on freelancing and its dangers. (See (Continued on Page 4) Muñoz Tries to Unlock Mystery of Bhutto’s Killing in Book EVENT RECAP: DECEMBER 4 cialists about the sloppy and lackadaisical police work that preceded Bhutto’s killing. He raised a series of ques- by Allan Dodds Frank tions about whether her assassination was practically in- OPC members helped pack the house at the beauti- evitable, if not planned by those in charge, since the au- ful Society of the Americas building on Park Avenue thorities in ignored pleas from Bhutto, from the to listen to Heraldo Muñoz discuss the assassination of U.S. and elsewhere, for topflight security preparations to Benazir Bhutto as she was campaigning in Pakistan. insure her protection. Muñoz, a Chilean diplomat who was appointed by the As in any good mystery story, Muñoz tried to unravel U.N. to lead an international inquiry into Bhutto’s mur- the many potential motives by suspects inside and out- der, was discussing his new book, Getting Away With side of Pakistan. He marched through Benazir’s political Murder. Under questioning by Lally Weymouth, senior rivals, the Taliban, factions of the military and Pakistani associate editor and the last U.S. intelligence service, agents from other countries, among writer to interview Bhutto extensively, Muñoz outlined a others. His conclusion, reached delicately with the Paki- list of suspects while admitting investigators have never stan ambassador to the U.N. in the crowd, seemed to be cracked the crime. With telling details, Munoz told the that Pakistan was — and remains — a pretty treacherous crowd of diplomats, journalists and foreign policy spe- and mysterious place.

(Continued From Page 1) in the past and to say also that you special lighting of the Empire State tions and their leaders rose and fell, have great responsibilities to meet Building in April to coincide with wars were declared and ended, and in the future.” For three quarters the Awards Dinner and a photo ex- of a century, the OPC continues to hibit of OPC award winners later in technological advances were made meet these responsibilities through the year. While this will be a year- throughout the world. Through all of its programs, convenings, awards, long remembrance of the Club’s this history, the OPC and its mem- scholarships and networks. When past, it will also be a celebration bers have been there to bear witness, the Columbus and Magellan of for- of its future. In a rapidly changing keeping generation after generation eign correspondents met on April 2, world of conflict and inspiring mo- informed. they created an entity to serve “the ments, OPC members will continue On August 5, 1960, Senator John interests of international journalists.” to capture stories as they unfold, giv- F. Kennedy, in his first speech since The OPC 75th Anniversary Com- ing them meaning and perspective, winning the democratic nomina- mittee is in the planning stages of while informing the world. Please tion for President, remarked that the many more events to take place in join us throughout 2014 to celebrate OPC “performed valuable functions 2014. Among those events will be a the OPC’s past, present and future. OVERSEAS PRESS CLUB OF AMERICA • BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT SECRETARY Jane Ciabattari Santiago Lyon Charles Wallace PAST PRESIDENTS Michael Serrill Jonathan Dahl Freelance Writer VP and Director of Financial Writer EX-OFFICIO Assistant Managing Editor in Chief NPR.org, Daily Beast Photography David A. Andelman Editor WSJMoney ASSOCIATE BOARD John Corporon Bloomberg Markets Deidre Depke ­MEMBERS Allan Dodds Frank ACTIVE BOARD Executive Editor Marcus Mabry Brian Byrd Alexis Gelber FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Jacqueline Albert- The Daily Beast Editor at Large Program Officer William J. Holstein Tim Ferguson Simon NYS Health Marshall Loeb Editor U.S. Bureau Chief Martin Dickson Foundation Larry Martz Forbes Asia Politique Internationale U.S. Managing Editor Robert Nickelsberg Roy Rowan Financial Times Freelance Sarah Lubman Leonard Saffir SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Amar C. Bakshi Photojournalist Partner Larry Smith Abigail Pesta JD/MBA student Arlene Getz Brunswick Group Richard B. Stolley Freelance Journalist Yale University Editor-in-Charge Romesh Ratnesar Digital News Deputy Editor Daniel Sieberg EXECUTIVE THIRD VICE PRESIDENT Rebecca Thomson Reuters Bloomberg Head of Media Outreach DIRECTOR Toni Reinhold Blumenstein Businessweek Google Sonya K. Fry Editor in Charge, Deputy Editor in Chief Azmat Khan New York Desk The Wall Street Journal Senior Digital Producer Martin Smith Minky Worden EDITOR Reuters Al Jazeera President Director of Global Aimee Vitrak Paul Brandus Rain Media Initiatives TREASURER West Wing Report Evelyn Leopold Human Rights Watch Dorinda Elliott Independent Journalist Seymour Topping OPC Global Affairs Editor Howard Chua-Eoan United Nations Emeritus Abi Wright ISSN-0738-7202 Conde Nast Traveler Former News Director Professor of Director ­Copyright © 2002 Time Dafna Linzer International Journalism Alfred I. duPont – Over­seas Press Club of Managing Editor Columbia University America MSNBC.com Awards 40 West 45 Street, New York, NY 10036 USA • Phone: (212) 626-9220 • Fax: (212) 626-9210 • Website: opcofamerica.org OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 2 Dangers in Syria Are Particularly Acute Among Freelancers LONDON RECAP: NOVEMBER 19 by Abigail Pesta With some 30 journalists cur- rently missing in Syria, a group of veteran war correspondents met in London on November 19 to debate the risks of reporting from one of the most dangerous places on earth. The Sonya K. Fry event, sponsored by the Overseas Press Club of America and the Front- From left: Mani, Sean Ryan, Stuart Hughes, Emma Beals, Fabio Bucciarelli line Club, a London-based media club, zoomed in on topics ranging the incentive to go back,” he says. “I some reporters had posed as medics, from kidnappings to the heavy flow felt at that point it was irresponsible while another person in the audience of reporting from freelancers in the to give any freelancer in that position — a man who had served as a medic region. an incentive.” in Syria — strongly advised against “I think most information that The Sunday Times lost its corre- that, noting that medics are targets came out of Syria last year came spondent Marie Colvin last year in themselves, for instance if they are from freelancers,” said freelance a shelling in Syria. The Committee seen as helping an enemy faction. photographer Fabio Bucciarelli in a to Protect Journalists calls the coun- One audience member asked panel discussion moderated by Stu- try the most dangerous place in the about female journalists in Syria, art Hughes, a BBC News producer world for journalists, with 28 corre- and whether they feel a need to take who lost a leg in a landline blast spondents killed in 2012. added risks to prove themselves on in Iraq. Bucciarelli, who won the Bucciarelli noted that there’s the frontlines. Beals said, “I think in OPC’s Robert Capa Gold Medal nothing black and white for publi- Syria, I’m going to be controversial Award last year for his photography cations when it comes to deciding and say it’s an advantage, actually. A from Syria, said he appreciates the whether to commission freelance lot of the great reporting that’s been freedom of freelancing and joked reporting from Syria. For instance, coming from Syria in recent months that freelancers are extremely moti- he said, publications might have a has been from women because you vated to “leave the hotel” and get the policy not to commission freelance can go a little bit more under cover, story so they can get paid. work, but those same publications, you can wear a hijab and sort of But freelancers come with a wide including The Sunday Times, buy putter around a little bit more.” She range of skills and experience — or photos from photo agencies that do added, “That’s not the same for ev- lack thereof — which creates a di- use work from freelancers. ery country, obviously…but as far as lemma for the publications that hire Talk turned to kidnappings and Syria goes, the female thing is, if not them, said Sean Ryan, associate edi- whether it’s safer for a correspon- a nonissue, almost an advantage.” tor of The Sunday Times. dent to be on staff with a large me- The group also discussed the Ryan said his newspaper had de- dia organization if the reporter gets future for Syria, with award-win- cided to stop commissioning work seized. Emma Beals, founder of the ning freelance filmmaker Mani not- from freelance journalists in Syria, Frontline Freelance Register, a group ing, “The issue for Syria is, is it go- unless they’re extremely experi- aimed at uniting and protecting jour- ing to be 10 states, or three states…I enced, in order to prevent them from nalists, said it might help in the way just hope inside the rebel areas it’s taking unnecessary risks for The the search is conducted to have the not going to be total chaos forever.” Times. He explained the decision backing of a major publication, but When Hughes asked whether it’s by recounting a specific experience with the uncertainty in Syria today, worth it to report from Syria and if with a freelancer: The reporter had she said she doubted it would make the public cares, photographer Buc- pitched a story on Syria to Ryan after much difference in the outcome. ciarelli summed it up this way: “No safely leaving the country. It was a Beals, who reports from Syria, journalist ever thinks that his picture “wonderful” story, Ryan said, and he noted that in terms of entering the can stop the world...I like to make paid well for it. Later, Ryan said, the country and traveling around as a re- people conscious of what’s going on same reporter pitched a story from porter, “It’s dangerous to assume that there. If only one person, after seeing inside Syria — a story Ryan didn’t any ways are foolproof.” Hughes one of my images, can think about think was worth the risk for the re- called the situation “a lottery.” One what’s going on in Syria, I’m happy porter. “I realized I had given him audience member mentioned that with that.”

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 3 (Continued From Page 1) Syria’s civil war are actually hunt- ing down journalists,” Sullivan said. “And the scary part is that they are not asking for ransom. They are us- ing them as collateral in case they have to bargain their way out of a situation later.” The panel and the audience, which included war reporters who Sonya K. Fry covered conflicts as far back as World War II, agreed that there has never been more need for conflict From left: Vivienne Walt, Michael Serrill, Fabio Bucciarelli, Jerome Delay, Jim Bittermann, Lucie Morillon and Aidan Sullivan training, medical instruction and protective gear like flak jackets. Alan Riding’s phrase. Bucciarelli, American delegation to the U.N. re- Delay said he took his first conflict himself a freelance, said shunning sponded by holding an hours-long course in the 1990s, “and I realized the unaffiliated is not the answer. debate on the issue and that the then how stupid I had been before.” Rather, they should be provided French mission is preparing a resolu- The discussion ranged across a with training — available free in the tion addressing the failure of govern- number of questions for which there U.K. — and other support. Morillon ments to arrest and prosecute those are no clear answers. Should the pointed out that RWB has provided who kidnap and kill journalists. media publicize the kidnapping of a flak jackets, insurance and other help The panel agreed that there are no journalist? How do you find a “fix- to more than 400 freelance journal- foolproof methods for staying safe in er” you can trust? In this time when ists working in and the a war zone. “The only way to prevent full-time staff for many media orga- Middle East in recent years. a kidnapping is to not be there,” Sul- nizations have been reduced, should Sullivan noted that he and Getty livan said. And, unfortunately, an in- you rely on freelancers? Many me- Images have launched a campaign creasing number of media organiza- dia companies refuse to use freelanc- via social media “saying the public tions are not there, as they conclude ers, especially if they have no experi- and our industry should do more to that covering Afghanistan, Iraq, Syr- ence in war zones or are perceived as offer protection” to working report- ia and a dozen other conflicts is not “cowboys” or “war junkies,” to use ers. He said he was gratified that the worth the risk and expense. Holiday AWARDS APPLICATION The OPC Awards application is Party available online at:

January 7 opcofamerica.org 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.T

The OPC’s Diamond Jubilee will take place at the All entrants will fill out the form Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street. Come online and all entry material with stories of the OPC, a reporting story, your most dangerous or proudest moment as a journal- will be posted electronically ex- ist. We will eat, drink, celebrate and tell stories. cept for categories that include Open Bar and Buffet books. Books should be sent to $80 per person T T the OPC office. Advance reservations are essential. Call the OPC 212-626-9220 or e-mail [email protected] Deadline: Thursday, January 30, 2014

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 4 PEOPLE... by Susan Kille [email protected]

OPC SCHOLARS lican Guards’ Club Shootings.” The Lauren Rosenfeld, who won award went to Ali the OPC’s Foundation 2012 Walter Ali, who has worked for EPA Agen- and Betsy Cronkite Scholarship, is cy since he was 17, for document- currently work- ing life in the Gaza Strip. Samuel ing on the Fault James received a photojournalism Lines documen- commendation for a project com- tary series at Al missioned by Harper’s Magazine on makeshift and illegal oil refineries Jazeera America. From Jobard’s “Dream of a Rain of Rosenfeld, who Perfume.” Kabul, Afghanistan: Two in the Niger Delta. James also won received her mas- men hide in a relative’s house. They the 2012 Rebbot Award for these ter’s degree from Rosenfeld cannot return to their homes because same pictures. Ben Anderson won Berkeley in May of the Taliban threat. broadcast honors for his piece for 2012, has also worked at the Inves- the men’s dream BBC’s Panorama and for Vice on tigative Reporting Program on Rape of reaching Paris, the drawdown of operations in Hel- in the Fields/Violación de un Sueño, a place where mand Province in Afghanistan. The a documentary co-production that they had heard program included a tribute to David aired on Frontline and Univision. that helicopters Douglas Duncan, an American pho- In the documentary, “Captive Ra- spray the air each tojournalist known for his dramatic morning with per- dio,” which she wrote about in her combat photographs from World fume. The grant Jobard winning scholarship application, has War II, Korea and Vietnam. of €20,000, or been shown at film festivals around about $27,000, was established by the world. The Rory Peck Awards, which Human Rights Watch and World honor freelance news camera opera- Press Photo to celebrate the life of tors, were presented in November at WINNERS Tim Hetherington, a photojournal- a London ceremony hosted by OPC Muhammad Bekjanov, an ist and filmmaker killed in Libya in member Christiane Amanpour of Uzbek journalist imprisoned for 2011. The contest is open to profes- CNN and ABC News. Aris Roussi- 14 years, and the Sri Lankan sional photographers who have par- Tamil-language ticipated in World Press Photo com- nos of Britain won the news award daily Uthayan won petitions. for “Ground Zero Mali: The Battle of the 2013 Press Free- Gao,” a self-funded video broadcast dom Prize from Bülent Mumay, a Turkish jour- online by Vice that showed street Reporters Without nalist who is editor in chief of the battles between government troops Borders (RSF). The hurriyet.com.tr website, received the and Islamist insurgents in northern awards were pre- Bekjanov 2013 Human Rights Award from the Mali. The features award went to sented November South East Europe Media Organisa- British filmmaker Olly Lambert 28 to Uthayan editor Vallipuram tion, an affiliate of the International for “Syria: Across the Lines,” which Kaanamylnaathan and owner Es- Press Institute (IPI). Mumay was was commissioned and broadcast warapatham Saravanapavan, honored for an editorial approach by Channel 4 Dispatches. The Sony and to Uzbek human rights defend- that recognizes human rights and Impact Award was presented to Ban- er Nadejda Atayeva on behalf of the importance of representing the gladeshi freelancers Soumen Guha Bekjanov. views of many different groups in and Dipak Chandra Sutradhar Turkish society. He leads a team of for “Hazaribagh: Toxic Leather,” Olivier Jobard, a French pho- 30 journalists. produced by Wild Angle Produc- tographer, was awarded the third tions. Azerbaijani freelancer Idrak annual Tim Hetherington Grant. The Frontline Club in London Abbasov was presented the Martin Jobard’s winning project, “Dream on October 24 presented its 2013 Adler Prize for bravery in continu- of a Rain of Perfume,” is about two awards. Patrick Kingsley won the ing to report after being beaten to young Afghan men who flee their print award for an investigation unconsciousness and hospitalized country after the Taliban threaten in The Guardian titled “Killing in for months. The Rory Peck Awards, their lives. The project is named for Cairo: the Full Story of the Repub- (Continued on Page 6)

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 5 (Continued From Page 5) is rare for the FCCJ, which includes sponsored by Sony, were set up 1995 Japanese and non-resident journal- and named after freelance camera ists, to make a political statement; its operator Rory Peck, who was killed protest was widely reported in Japan. in in 1993. Opponents say the bill will allow an already opaque government to clas- PRESS FREEDOM sify nearly anything a state secret ATHENS: Kostas Vaxevanis, and that its harsh punishments could a Greek editor, was acquitted for a intimidate whistleblowers and stifle second time of breaching privacy press freedom. after publishing a list of some 2,000 “It is at the very Greeks with Swiss bank accounts. heart of investiga- He was tried in 2012 and cleared, tive journalism in but in an unusual move a prosecu- open societies to tor ordered a retrial that ended in late uncover secrets November. The list is said to include The top photo was taken by official and to inform White House photographer Pete the people about politicians, businessmen and others Birmingham Souza and the bottom by NYT pho- the activities of suspected of using the accounts to tographer Doug Mills. The NYT ran evade taxes. Its publication sparked these photos together to illustrate the government,” Lucy Birmingham, fury among Greeks hit by deep aus- disparity in access to the President. FCCJ president, wrote in a Novem- terity measures. Vaxevanis says the ber 11 statement. “Such journalism list was given in 2010 by the then the White House, just as you would is not a crime, but rather a crucial French Finance Minister Christine refuse to run verbatim a press re- part of the checks-and-balances that Lagarde to her Greek counterpart. lease from them.” go hand-in-hand with democracy.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said PARIS: A gunman with a rifle the legislation is needed to secure opened fire November 18 in the cooperation with Japan’s major ally, lobby of Libération, a left-wing the United States, as well as other daily newspaper, gravely wound- countries. ing a photographer’s assistant be- fore fleeing. Two days later, police arrested Abdelhakim Dekhar, who Vaxevanis had served four years in prison af- ter being convicted in 1998 as an WASHINGTON: The White accomplice in a 1994 robbery and House Correspondents’ Associa- car chase that left three police of- tion, The Associated Press, Agence ficers and a taxi driver dead. Police France-Presse, The Washington Post, said Dekhar was the same man who The New York Times, ABC, CBS, the previous week stormed the Paris CNN, Fox and NBC were among 38 headquarters of popular TV news organizations and news companies channel BFMTV, where he briefly Jim Wyss is greeted by his that on November 21 sent a letter threatened staff with a gun before girlfriend Ana Soler upon arrival to the White House protesting re- rushing out. Dekhar faces charges of to Miami International Airport. strictions on photographers’ access attempted murder. CARACAS: Jim Wyss, The Mi- to presidential activities. ami Herald’s Andean bureau chief, The groups contend that the TOKYO: The Foreign Corre- was held for almost two days after White House routinely excludes spondents’ Club of Japan joined being detained November 7 by the news photographers from sessions international press freedom groups Venezuela National Guard in San with President and and major Japanese news organiza- Cristobal, which The Associated then releases official photographs. tions in protesting the Designated Press described as “a hotbed for ille- The American Society of News Secrets Bill, which was approved gal transactions used to circumvent Editors has urged its members “to by the lower house of Parliament in rigid currency controls.” Wyss, who refrain from publishing any of the late November and at press time was is based in Bogota and has made photographs or videos released by expected to pass the upper house. It many trips to Venezuela, was report-

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 6 ing on municipal elections taking an country to have no criminal defa- Joas Dignos, a controversial place in December that are seen as mation laws — including seditious Filipino radio journalist, was shot in a referendum on high inflation and libel — on the books. After years the head and killed November 29 by shortages that have marked Nicolás of lobbying by the media and civil two men on a motorcycle in Valencia Maduro’s six months as president society interests, the House of Rep- City in Mindanao, police said. Dig- after the death of Hugo Chávez. “I resentatives on November 5 passed nos, who had a weekday show called was exceptionally lucky,” Weiss a bill revamping the country’s libel Bombardier on DXGT radio, was wrote after his release. “The Miami legislation. According to the IPI, known for fiery comments regard- Herald, the U.S. State Department, the new law repeals criminal libel, ing city officials, colleagues said. airlines, local journalists and abso- eliminates the distinction between In June, a grenade was hurled at the lute strangers pushed hard for my slander and libel; reduces the period radio station while one of Dignos’s release. I am grateful to all of them.” for actions from six years to two; re- commentaries was being aired. Hu- places defense of justification with man Rights Watch said as many as ISTANBUL: Rights groups ac- the defense of truth; introduces the 24 journalists have been murdered cused Turkey’s courts of using an- defense of innocent dissemination; since President Benigno Aquino ti-terrorism laws to silence dissent and stipulates that damages shall be took office in 2010 despite his prom- after three journalists received life at the discretion of judges, not juries. ise to fight against such abuses. sentences for alleged links to the Grenada, a member of the British outlawed Marxist-Leninist Com- Commonwealth, abolished criminal Alaa Edwar, an Iraqi camera munist Party, which the government libel in 2012, but maintains laws operator for Nineveh Al-Ghad tele- regards as a terrorist organization. criminalizing seditious libel and in- vision, was murdered November 24 They were among seven defendants sult of the monarch. in Mosul by gunmen who shot him handed life sentences November 5 three times in the head and chest. on charges of “trying to overthrow KUWAIT CITY: In a sign of RSF said Edwar was the fourth constitutional order by means of vio- widening crackdowns in Gulf Arab journalist gunned down in similar lence.” The three journalists are Fü- states on social media, two Twitter circumstances in Mosul in less than sun Erdogan, former head of Ozgür users in different cases and different two months. Radyo; Ibrahim Cicek, editor of countries were sentenced to prison the weekly Atilim; and Bayram on November 18. A Kuwait court Car theft appeared to be the mo- Namaz, an Atilim reporter. A fourth sentenced Musaab Shamsah to five tive in the November 4 murder of journalist, Atilim journalist publish- years for a Twitter message posted in Alberto Angulo Gerardo, a Mexi- er Sedat Senoglu, was sentenced to May that authorities said insulted the can sports journalist, who was shot seven and a half years in prison. Prophet Muhammad. In the United dead while driving in the northern Arab Emirates, Waleed al-Shehhi state of Sinaloa. : The Islamist was ordered jailed for two years and Three carloads of militia Al-Shabaab banned televi- fined $137,000 for a message posted gunmen chased sion viewing in the coastal town of in May about the trial of 94 men ac- Angulo Gerar- Barawe, in the Lower Shabelle re- cused of links to an armed group. do’s car and fired gion of southern . The ban Shehhi is the second Emirati online when he refused was announced on October 28 and activist to be convicted for posting to stop, according residents were given five days to about the UAE 94 trial. Abdullah to reports. Three hand in their TV sets and satellite Al-Hadidi was arrested in March female relatives Gerardo dishes. “This ban’s real target is TV and received a 10-month sentence who were with news stations, which annoy Al-Sha- that was upheld on appeal in May. Angulo Gerardo were injured. baab by showing viewers not only He was released on November 1. its atrocities but also the progress Ghislaine Dupont and Claude that the population has made in the MURDERS Verlon, who had worked at Ra- regions from which Al-Shabaab has The body of Radwan Ghary- dio France Internationale since the been expelled,” RSF said in a state- ani, the owner and manager of radio 1980s, were abducted and killed ment. Tripoli FM , was found December 1 November 2 while reporting in the in a suburb of the Libya capital. He remote northern Mali town of Kidal, KINGSTON: Jamaica has be- had been shot four times. A motive which has remained a stronghold of come the first independent Caribbe- was not immediately clear. (Continued on Page 8)

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 7 (Continued From Page 7) agents, and were tortured for more ist kidnappings.” Rohde said four than a day. Americans were among the missing, including Foley and Austin Tice, a UPDATES freelancer for McClatchy Newspa- BOSTON: GlobalPost and its pers and The Washington Post, who GroundTruth Project are taking ap- disappeared in August 2012. Rohde plications through December 31 for wrote that the families of two other international journalism fellowships American journalists have asked that will send 20 young reporters that their names not be made public. Dupont and Verlon around the world to create multime- separatists and insurgents despite dia projects related to the youth un- CHICAGO: Tribune Co., which the French military intervention and employment crisis. Ten teams with owns the , Chi- a U.N. mission. Du- two fellows each will be chosen. cago Tribune and seven other daily pont, a senior correspondent, spent Each team will work in a different newspapers, on November 20 an- most of her career in Africa. Verlon, country. GroundTruth is funded by nounced that it was eliminating 700 a production technician, was a vet- the Ford Foundation and headed by jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, eran of Iraq and Afghanistan cover- Charles Sennott, an OPC member. and reorganizing operational func- age. Armed men grabbed them after “The reporters will explore how the tions to save money. Tribune, which they interviewed the acting head of energy of unemployed youth might also owns 23 TV stations, sought to the rebel National Movement for be harnessed for good rather than sell the papers this year but was un- the Liberation of the Azawad, or sitting idle or in many cases becom- able to find a buyer. It now plans to NMLA, officials said. Their throats ing a destructive force,” said Sen- spin off its publishing business as a were slit and their bodies were nott, GlobalPost co-founder and edi- separate company. dumped outside the town. Suspicion tor at large. fell on the NMLA, the Tuareg sepa- WASHINGTON: The trial for ratist movement that invaded north- DAMASCUS: Thanksgiving the August 2011 murder of Viola ern Mali last year, with al-Qaida marked a year since James Foley, Drath, an OPC member, was post- fighters. The NMLA later fell out an American freelance journalist poned until January 6. Albrecht with al-Qaida and was chased out working for GlobalPost, was kid- Muth, who was married to Drath, is of much of northern Mali, except napped in Syria as he drove toward charged with first-degree murder in for Kidal. Killings do not match the the Turkish border at the end of a the beating and strangulation death pattern of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic reporting trip. The Committee to of his wife. Muth, 48, has denied Maghreb, which has bankrolled its Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in No- any role in the death of 91-year-old operations by kidnapping and ran- vember that at least 30 journalists are Drath, a journalist and socialite. The soming Westerners. missing in Syria trial date was changed once before, and believed to with the case stalled by concerns The bullet-riddled body of Man- have been kid- over Muth’s mental and physical uel Murillo Varela, a freelance napped. RSF, state. In November, a judge rejected journalist in Honduras, was found however, cited a defense bid to subpoena former October 24 in Tegucigalpa. Murillo higher figures, CIA director David Petraeus as a po- Varela was a camera operator for saying at least 60 tential witness. Globo TV and for the state televi- “news providers” Foley sion, Canal 8. He was also the of- are detained and NEW YORK: The U.N. Gen- ficial camera operator for former more than 110 eral Assembly on November 26 president José have been killed. condemned all attacks and violence Manuel Zelaya In a November against journalists and media work- Rosales, who was 15 blog post for ers as it adopted its first resolution overthrown in Reuters, David on the safety of journalists and the a 2009 military Rohde, a former issue of impunity. The resolution, coup. Murillo New York Times Tice which also created an International Varela had been correspondent Day to End Impunity for crimes a past victim of Varela kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2008 against journalists, called on mem- violence: he and with two Afghan colleagues and ber states “to do their utmost to a colleague were abducted in Feb- held for seven months, wrote that prevent violence against journalists ruary 2010, reportedly by police Syria has “an epidemic of journal- and media workers” and to ensure

OPC Bulletin • April 2012 • Page 8 accountability in investigations, to bring perpetrators to justice and to provide victims with remedies. Magazines Switch From Print to Web to Print Newsweek plans to return to print, New York magazine is going bi- The Forbes family has put up weekly and The Week will add issues. for sale their 96-year-old namesake Of those three announcements that came in early business magazine and its Web prop- December, the most surprising was from Newsweek, erties. The November announcement which published what was called its last print edition at follows years of dwindling profits. the end of 2012, when Tina Brown was editor. News- The family, a pioneer in business week has changed hands four times in three years. journalism, tried to stabilize its busi- Jim Impoco, the former executive editor of Thomson ness by selling a stake in 2006, ag- Reuters Digital who was hired in September by IBT Brown gressively embracing digital pub- Media as editor in chief, said the magazine expects a lishing and selling assets, including 64-page weekly edition will begin in January or Febru- its Manhattan headquarters building. ary. He described it as a “premium product” relying on In a memo to employees, Michael S. subscriptions and that readers would pay more than in Perlis, the chief executive of Forbes the past. Media and the first non-family A day earlier, New York magazine said that in member to run the magazine, said March it would shift from weekly to biweekly publica- “we expect interest from numerous tion, with increased pages and content. Resources will Impoco suitors.” According to news reports, be added to its increasingly popular website, nymag. the family is seeking at least $400 com, and its iPad app will be enhanced. million in a sale but some observers The Week, a British-born news magazine that began publishing in the believe the price could be closer to U.S. in 2001, already had told advertisers that next year it would increase $200 million. its issues from 48 to 51. The public announcement, however, was withheld while officials waited for a good opportunity. The New York magazine an- nouncement provided that opportunity. — by Susan Kille Scott Pelley, anchor of “CBS Eve- the daughter of Boots’ brother. Then ning News” and also a “60 Minutes” an email came saying she was safe. correspondent, appeared in her place The niece’s older sister, also a doc- at the benefit dinner. tor, contacted a friend two hours from Tacloban who hired a driver Logan issued a correction on the Boots Duque, the OPC office as- with a van to go look for the couple. Benghazi story 60 Minutes aired sistant, reports that all members of The driver did not know the couple on October 27. her immediate family in the Philip- and had only a recent photo to go pines are safe after Typhoon Haiyan, by. “When he recognized them, he Lara Logan, a CBS News cor- including a niece and her husband himself shed tears of joy — finding respondent, and her producer, Max who lived in Tacloban City, where them alive,” Boots said. He drove McClellan, took leaves of absence the storm (called Yolanda in the them back to the friend’s town and after she apologized on November ) came ashore. The cou- then the niece, her husband and 10 in a rare on-air correction for a ple lost their home and belongings her parents-in-law flew to , discredited “60 Minutes” report in but survived, while two aunts and where they plan to settle. October about the 2011 attack on the three cousins of the niece’s husband American compound in Benghazi, were drowned. Boots said her fam- In a long-delayed case, a federal Libya. “The most important thing ily has always lived in metropolitan judge in November dismissed a law- to every person at ‘60 Minutes’ is Manila but when her niece married, suit by authors opposing Google’s the truth, and the truth is: we made the couple, both physicians, settled plan to digitize every book ever a mistake,” Logan told viewers. in Tacloban City and had practices published and to make them search- Logan also stepped aside from her in a hospital owned by the husband’s able online. Google began its book- commitment to serve as host on No- family. Her family grew increas- scanning project in 2004, without vember 26 for CPJ’s 23rd annual In- ingly anxious after not hearing for obtaining permission from copyright ternational Press Freedom Awards; three days from the niece, who is (Continued on Page 10)

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 9 respondent. Mitgang wrote or edited

Freeland Elected to Canadian Parliament 15 fiction and nonfiction books, in- cluding two on Abraham Lincoln. One of his two plays, “Mr. Lincoln,” had a brief run on Broadway after a successful production in Washing- ton at Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated.

Above, Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau applauds Freeland during a speech in Toronto on October 2. Penn Kimball, a journalist and teacher who sued the federal gov- ernment after he learned that he Left, Freeland celebrates her had been secretly declared a secu- win on November 25. rity risk, died November 8 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He was 98. After Chrystia Freeland, a former OPC board member who has held sev- working at PM newspaper, Time, eral senior positions at Thomson Reuters, was elected in November to represent the Toronto Centre district in the Canadian Parliament as a Collier’s, the New Republic, The member of the Liberal Party. Freeland, who is also a best-selling author, New York Times and CBS, Kimball surprised the news industry in July with the announcement that she was became a professor at Columbia’s returning to her native Canada and running for office. Graduate School of Journalism in 1959. In 1977, he used the relatively — by Susan Kille new Freedom of Information Act to holders. Groups representing au- 21 at his home in Manhattan. He was request any materials the govern- thors and publishers sued Google in 93. Mitgang started at The Times in ment had about him. 2005 claiming copyright violations. 1945. He left for a brief period in the In his 1983 book The File, he The Authors Guild said it planned to 1960s and was an assistant to Fred wrote that he was stunned to learn appeal. W. Friendly, the president of CBS that more than 30 years earlier, af- News, and helped organize coverage ter he had taken and passed the exam PEOPLE REMEMBERED of the . for the Foreign Service, the State He then returned to The Times, Department had opened a security where he worked until his retirement file on him that grew over the years in 1994. He wrote about foreign af- with contributions by the FBI and fairs, theater and the law, among the CIA that characterized him as other subjects. He helped create The “as a dangerous radical, a disloyal Times’s Op-Ed page, which was in- American, a national security risk, a troduced in 1970. As president of subversive ‘too clever’ to be caught the Authors Guild and the Authors holding a membership card in the League Fund, he was a leader in the Communist Party.” Herbert Mitgang, a longtime fight for authors’ rights and interests. In 1987, all three agencies agreed New York Times journalist and an He served as an Army intelli- to expunge the files in exchange for author of several books, including gence officer and an Army journal- Kimball’s agreeing to drop his suit. an exposé of government files com- ist in World War II and earned six After retiring from teaching in 1985, piled on prominent authors such as battle stars. He later wrote about his he stayed at Columbia as a graduate Truman Capote, John Steinbeck and experiences in Newsmen in Khaki: student and received a doctorate in Tennessee Williams, died November Tales of a World War II Soldier-Cor- political science in the late 1980s.

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 10 Difficulties With Visas and Access Continue in China by Susan Kille barred from a joint press event in Beijing with The leadership of China does not believe in Cameron and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. In press rights and major news organizations are a written statement, Cameron’s office said it being targeted for aggressive reporting. Re- protested Hutton’s exclusion. porters are being denied visas. Websites have China has blocked the Bloomberg News been shut down. website since last year after the company pub- Vice President Joe Biden discussed repri- lished a story about the wealth of families of sals against the media with Chinese President Chinese leaders including Xi, the former vice Xi Jinping and other top leaders in early De- Winkler president who is now president. That project cember while on a visit to Beijing. Biden also won the 2012 OPC Award for Best Investiga- publicly criticized the Chinese for refusing to tive Reporting, with Forsythe one of the re- say if they will renew visas of journalists and cipients. for continuing to block American-based news Bloomberg reporters trying to enter China websites. on new reporting assignments have not re- Biden told reporters in Beijing for The ceived visas. According to The Times, China New York Times and Bloomberg News that has ordered companies not to lease Bloomberg he warned Chinese leaders of consequences terminals. if journalists were forced out. He said Xi re- Forsythe As the most populous nation in the world sponded that reporters were treated according and the second largest economy, China is an to Chinese law. The Times reported that nearly important developing market for American two dozen journalists working for it and for businesses, including the media. Bloomberg have visas that expire by the end China blocked the English- and Chinese- of the month. So far, China has declined to act language news websites of The Times and has on the visas. not issued the paper new journalist visas fol- Bloomberg News found itself in the news lowing publication of stories in 2012 about the after a front page story in The New York Times wealth of family members of former Prime on November 9 reported that some Bloomberg Hutton Minister Wen Jiabao. That project won a Polk, employees said top editors, led by Matthew OPC Malcom Forbes Award and a Pulitzer Winkler, the editor in chief, killed two in- Prize for David Barboza. The shutdowns have vestigative pieces about China due to concern cost the company about $3 million in revenue. that Bloomberg might be expelled from China. Winkler said in an email to The Times that “the The Times launched a Chinese-language stories are active and not spiked.” website in October based on its style maga- According to The Times, one story detailed zines and that also was blocked. In Novem- hidden financial ties between one of China’s ber, Mark Thompson, CEO of The New York Times Co., told Reuters that the company has richest men and families of the country’s top Mooney leaders; the other article was about children of no information about when the blocks will be senior Chinese officials employed by foreign lifted. He said the company keeps all money- banks. A few days later, Michael Forsythe, losing operations under review. a reporter who worked on one story, was sus- Other media organizations also have visa pended. On November 18, Bloomberg laid difficulties. Paul Mooney, who covered Asia off dozens of staff members, primarily cover- for three decades and spent 18 years based in ing sports and culture, and reassigned others. Beijing, said he learned in November that his That day, Bloomberg said Forsythe had left application for a resident journalist visa was the company. Winkler and Forsythe are OPC Chan rejected with no reason given. He had waited members. eight months for a visa that would allow him Fortune magazine reported that Chi- to begin a job in China for Thomson Reuters. nese authorities conducted unannounced inspections of He returned to the United States last year after his previ- Bloomberg bureaus in Beijing and in late No- ous visa sponsored by The South China Morning Post vember. expired. On December 1, Robert Hutton, a London-based Melissa Chan, working for Al Jazeera, was the first reporter for Bloomberg, traveling to China with Da- foreign reporter expelled from China in 14 years when vid Cameron, the United Kingdom prime minister, was authorities refused to renew her visa in May 2012.

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 11 OPC Luminaries Recall Covering JFK’s Assassination by Susan Kille hands of the police, and then Monday, when the First OPC members recall their work 50 years earlier cov- Lady orchestrated and planned an absolutely beautiful ering the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. funeral in Washington that pulled the country together, I When Kennedy died, Roy Rowan was having lunch think journalism, on the first draft, did a better job than it in New York with his boss Henry Luce, the creator of often does on cataclysmic breaking news stories.” the Time-Life magazine empire and its editor-in-chief. On November 22, 1963, Seymour Topping was at Rowan, who at the time was assistant managing editor of The New York Times. It was a rare visit for that time in Life in charge of international news, was ordered to fly to his career. He was traveling from Moscow, where he had the printing plant in Chicago and remake the magazine. been chief correspondent, en route to be the chief cor- It was Friday. Before the presses stopped, a few million respondent in Southeast Asia. Last month after receiv- copies were printed featuring Navy quarterback Roger ing the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society Staubach and the upcoming Army-Navy game. of Silurians, Topping told the group that moments after “We tore up the magazine, not knowing we would Tom Wicker flashed the news “it was discovered, inex- get the Zapruder film,” Rowan told The Courant in plicably, that there was no advance obit for the young Hartford. Editors and production staff scrambled, with president.” Homer Bigart, a renowned war correspon- no time for color photos. Life was on the newsstands by dent, and Topping were assigned the task. By 6:30 p.m., Monday with the iconic black-and-white Zapruder im- four and a half hours after the death was announced, they ages secured by Richard Stolley. (See article page 13.) had written an obituary that filled a page of The Times. “Dick did a marvelous job of talking to Mr. Zapruder Topping, who had met Kennedy in Saigon in 1951, — in not being aggressive and not being belligerent, and said he spent a sleepless night at the Astor Hotel. “I wept so Zapruder sold him the film,” Rowan said. for Kennedy. I wept for my country,” he said. “And I Dan Rather was Southwest bureau chief in Dallas for wondered what Kennedy would have done about Viet- CBS News but the job of reporting Kennedy’s visit fell to nam if he had lived.” the late Bob Pierpont, the White House correspondent. Jim Lehrer was a young reporter for the Dallas Rather, a Texan native, had the role of handling logistics Times-Herald assigned that day to cover the president’s during Kennedy’s swing through Texas but he became arrival and departure from Love Field. He saw Kennedy the first to report the death of the president. break protocol when he arrived by going to a fence to Rather said he was positioned just past where the mo- shake hands. Lehrer was supposed to stay at the airport torcade was supposed to end, waiting for a cameraman until the president returned but after hearing the news to throw him film to be processed and used on CBS that and calling his office, he was told to go to the nearby night. “I didn’t hear any shots,” he told Marvin Kalb hospital. He said he arrived just as it was announced that this November 22 in a conversation at the National Press Kennedy was dead. He then was told that there was an Club. “I didn’t know what had happened. All I knew is arrest and he needed to get to the police office. He was that I thought I had seen the presidential limousine go able to go up to Lee Harvey Oswald when he arrived and by in just a nanosecond. Was that the presidential limou- asked: “Did you kill the president?” Oswald replied: “I sine? Was that the First Lady? What is this?” didn’t kill anybody.” Lehrer said, “I wrote that down.” He went to the nearby CBS affiliate and after hearing He said he still had the notebook. what happened, his instincts as a former police reporter The Times-Herald published new editions every hour. kicked in. When there’s a shooting, call the hospital. The Lehrer said he is still pained that he, without checking first time the switchboard hung up. The next time he was further, called in a tip that an FBI agent told him a Secret put through to a priest and a doctor who both said the Service agent had been killed along with Kennedy. The president was dead. Meanwhile, the local CBS News information was wrong. “In today’s world, that would director had the same information from a high-ranking have gone out like that,” he told The Daily Beast. The ac- hospital official. Rather gave the news on an open line to count was spiked by a reporter on rewrite who called the CBS Radio. The death was confirmed 15 minutes later. hospital and told Lehrer: “I saved your ass and your job.” Kalb asked Rather how he thought reporting from the He stayed at the police station and was there when assassination held up from a historical perspective. Oswald was brought into a late-night news conference. “Was it done perfectly? Absolutely not. Were mis- Lehrer realized later that during the conference he was takes made? Of course they were,” Rather responded. standing near Jack Ruby. Lehrer’s had a federal govern- “But taking into full account the four dark days, Friday ment beat at the Times-Herald and spent the next six when the president was assassinated, Saturday when his months “doing nothing but assassination stories.” alleged assassin was being questioned, and Sunday, when Lehrer’s novel about the assassination is previewed still incredibly, the assassin was assassinated while in the on Page 16.

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 12 Life and Dick Stolley: A Book, a Film, a Performance by Bob Dowling to Washington,” he recalled. By the time he took the stage at the Lensic Center Wingo was assigned to stake out the White House in Santa Fe on November 22, Dick Stolley had been on where Jackie Kennedy was expected to return around 1 the road for two months promoting Life magazine’s 192- a.m. She arrived after 4 a.m., stepping out of her limo in page special: “The Day Kennedy Died, 50 Years Later front of the press pack, facing them in her blood soaked Life Remembers the Man and the Mo- pink suit. She could have ment.” Stolley, a former president of snuck in through the side the OPC and a Santa Fe resident, is portico, Wingo recalled. known to history as the then 35-year- She later said she stood old journalist who obtained the Abra- there to “show the world ham Zapruder film — the home-made what they had done”. 8-mm recording of the murder of the Then Stolley took the president told in 486 frames. The podium to explain how graphic frame 313, withheld in Life’s he was going through November 29, 1963 issue as too grisly the Dallas phone book to inflict on the Kennedy family the Kate Russell to find “Z” for Zapruder, week after the slaying, is included. It Dick Stolley at The Lensic. shows the President’s head exploding calling every 15 min- in a gush of pink blood from what Life says was Lee Har- utes until at 11 p.m. he vey Oswald’s last shot. reached the clothing manufacturer. Zapruder was ex- Why did Life go to all the trouble? Today it’s more hausted and refused Stolley’s request to visit him. Stol- important than ever to know who asserts what about the ley backed off, getting a commitment to meet at 9 a.m. tragic event. Although Stolley believes, as the Warren the next day. “I got there at 8 a.m., and the press was Commission determined that Oswald acted alone, plenty everywhere. But Zapruder said, ‘you called me first.’ of people do not. Plots range from CIA involvement, to Stolley was ushered into a room with two Secret Ser- Fidel Castro, to the Mafia and other conspirators. There vice agents. “We watched the film in silence until every- has been a reissue of previous conspiracy works and the one went ‘ugh’ when the final shot exploded Kenney’s release of new similar books and articles in the past year. head.” Then the Secret Service agents thanked Zapruder Over coffee in Santa Fe, days before his final presen- and left. tation, I asked how Stolley saw this timeline of history. Astonished, Stolley realized he had a chance to make “I was in on 9/11 and regard that as an offer. He opened with $5,000 to see if Zapruder a seminal event of my lifetime. But the Kennedy assas- knew the value of what he had. He then bargained up to sination is much larger and pervasive. It dominates the $50,000. With the press pack banging on the door and nation and the world half a century later.” incessantly ringing the office phone, Zapruder had had Do you get the same questions at each stop? I asked enough and sold Life the print rights. Stolley snuck out him. “Yes, nearly always. But I try to find more creative a back way and shipped the film to Chicago, where Life answers” he replied with a grin. was holding the presses. Days afterward, the Life brass At his appearance before a 300-person home audi- called Zapruder back and bought worldwide rights for ence, Stolley started with a 35-minute documentary of $150,000 — about $1.123 million today. Stolley said he what he remembered. The film was interspersed with was later told he got the film because he won Zapruder’s clips from Zapruder’s camera and on-the-scene still shots. That warmed everyone up. As Life demonstrated respect. through interviews with prominent and more ordinary And so was history writ with a useful lesson for to- folks for this anniversary edition, it seemed everyone day’s frenzied reporters. “Sometimes you have to be a could recall the exact second they heard the news. bastard. Sometimes you have to show respect for the cir- Joining Stolley was Hal Wingo, a Life colleague cumstance. I could see Abraham Zapruder was grieving. also now living in Santa Fe. He told the audience he was It was not a time to press him.” walking down 6th Avenue to the Time-Life building in As the evening progressed, the two veterans recalled New York after lunch when he saw crowds staring into in a flawless Dick and Hal routine the assassination the windows of the low-brow electronics stores along the weekend, invoking color, humor and a little self-depre- street. He was stunned. They were looking at small black cation to tell their story. And a story it was. As a panel and white TVs broadcasting the assassination news. “I afterwards agreed, there are facts, and then there is the raced to the building and soon was on an Eastern Shuttle human insight that brings the facts to life.

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 13 Women Covering War: Nerve and Determination of Steel and learned to look for people EVENT RECAP: NOVEMBER 8 who weren’t “war junkies” but by Aimee Vitrak who understood the politics When watching Edie Lederer, Tina Susman and Ni- and military dynamics and had cole Tung during the OPC-NYU discussion on women a sense of what would be dan- covering war, they each had a presence that indicated gerous. they had never been asked, “are you sure?” These are Tung said even though three self-directed and determined women. They’ve had there are now classes and re- to be, and not just because war reporting is a field domi- sources to prepare journalists nated by men, but because war reporting requires gut Lederer covering her first entering conflict zones, she war, Vietnam. Photo from instinct and a singular drive, which each woman relayed went into Libya without train- the book War Torn. when discussing covering conflict. ing. She ended up shadowing OPC member Lederer has covered war in Vietnam, Jon Lee Anderson who gave the Middle East, Afghanistan, Bosnia and elsewhere. Susman is a former bureau chief for the Los her a flack jacket and helmet. Angeles Times. Tung is a freelance photographer cover- She said it was a sobering les- ing the Middle East and North Africa. The panel was son in how dangerous the job moderated by Professor Mohamad Bazzi with an intro- was when photographers Tim duction by Pete Hamill. Hetherington and Chris Hon- All three women conceded their families had wished dros were killed. Tung later they’d gone for the Paris or Rome bureau. “I always took advantage of a RISC wanted to cover conflict,” Susman said. “I grew up training course that instructs Susman in Ethiopia in watching news and being a journalist looked like an ex- on first-aid in the field. “Not the early 2000s. citing job. I knew I could do it and be good at it.” having a skill to make a tour- Bazzi asked how the women prepared for covering niquet isn’t OK anymore,” she conflict. Susman said she just showed up in Somalia. said. “I followed what the more experienced journalists were Bazzi asked if they ever doing. Asked questions and went with my gut.” felt afraid while covering con- Lederer said a chance encounter at a lunch with a flict. Lederer said sometimes comandante of a U.S. base led her to a day in the train- it’s good to be afraid. “Fear ing field to learn about weapons and mines. “Off I went makes you assess where you to Vietnam incredibly green,” she said. She also fol- are, what you are doing, what lowed around the seasoned AP press corp for a year risks are for Tung wearing her safety gear for the field. you,” she said. She once had a 45-caliber pistol pointed at her temple by a customs agent in Afghanistan. “You have to be cool,” she said with a smile. “I wasn’t afraid until that night when I thought about what had happened.” Susman said that being a woman has often been an asset as a reporter because she has her eye trained dif- ferently and sees stories where oth- ers might not, like fresh-flower busi- nesses and gastric bypass operations

Nicole Tung in Baghdad at the height of the war. Had she ever covered a story and re- gretted it because of the risk? “Nev-

er,” she said. “I have the profession- This is the safety gear Tung equips herself with in the field. alism and clout with my editors to Among the items is a chemical light stick, hydration salts, say, ‘no, I don’t want to do that, but face mask, USB key and Leatherman knife. how about I do this... .’”

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 14 said it would help him on deadline Tigers in Sri Lanka where shrapnel later if Lehrer could tell him if the destroyed the sight in her left eye. presidential limousine would have a In Under the Wire: Witnessing plexiglass bubble top during the mo- War with Marie Colvin [Weinstein torcade. Kennedy was known to dis- Books, October], Paul Conroy like the top, which protected against gives an account of his last assign- bad weather, not bullets. ment with Colvin. Conroy, a pho- It had rained that morning and tographer, and Colvin reported from the bubble was on the limo waiting at the airport. Lehrer talked to a Se- Colvin embedded with Libyan war zones around the world. He has cret Service agent, who used a two- anti-Qaddafi rebels. written a vivid and moving account way radio to check on the weather eran American war correspondent of their friendship and the last year downtown. The agent decided the who worked for the Sunday Times of they spent together. top should be removed. Top Down London. She and French photojour- Conroy’s description of how he, [Random House, October] is Leh- nalist Remi Ochlik died in February Colvin and other journalists moved 2012 while covering the civil war in rer’s fictional exploration of what around Syria when it was impos- Syria when a makeshift press center that decision meant to Kennedy, a sible to know who to trust detail the Secret Service agent and Jack Gilm- in Homs was shelled in what was seen as a government attack target- risks and challenges of reporting on ore, an ambitious young reporter at the civil war there. He tells how he Love Field that day. ing journalists. and Colvin were smuggled into the Did the decision doom the presi- On the Front Line: The Collected country and crawled through a claus- dent? Might Lee Harvey Oswald Journalism of Marie Colvin [Harper have thought the top was bullet- Collins, October] is a showcase for trophobic, muddy tunnel toward proof? Would he have held about 100 of Colvin’s dis- rebel-held Homs. Conroy, a former his fire? Or would he have patches beginning with British soldier, knew it was danger- shot anyway, shattering the 1986 U.S. bombing of ous. As Colvin’s reports from Homs the glass into shards that Libya and ending with her shocked the world, they became would have killed every- last assignment in Syria. trapped in a hellish place. Heavy ar- one in the car? Colvin covered wars tillery fire rained down, killing and Five years after the as- but focused on noncomba- maiming hundreds of civilians. The tants and ordinary people. sassination, the agent’s rocket that killed Colvin blew a hole She writes about an Iraqi daughter calls Gilmore. He in Conroy’s thigh big enough to put tortured into having cos- reluctantly agrees to her his hand through. His evacuation af- demand to speak “off the metic surgery to become ter five days of blood loss, pain and record – way, way off the Uday Hussein’s body record.” Her father, racked by guilt, double, a girl in Kosovo dwindling supplies is a harrowing has lost the will to live. She wants who finds the remains of account. to reenact the shooting at a seclud- her family in plastic bags, Acknowledging his ed estate to show what would have desperate women and chil- friend as someone whose happened if the bubble top had re- dren in East Timor fight- “reputation as a hard-arsed mained. And, she wants his help. ing through razor wire to war reporter – one of the Lehrer draws on his experience seek sanctuary in a U.N. toughest, best and brav- in Dallas to tell the story, largely compound, and a Libyan est of our time – preceded through the voice of Gilmore. At the soldier who describes how her,” Conroy said Colvin end, Gilmore says: “For me, the fra- he and his comrades car- had a “superb sense of ried out an order to rape gility of what we all come to think the absurd” as well as an of as order and normality has been four sisters. Her refusal “easy-going manner and the permanent lesson of the Kennedy to leave East Timor in 1999 helped assassination. Since that awful day shame the U.N. into staying and the effortless charm.” Most of all, he we’ve known we are always only international community into forcing said, she believed in the power and three shots away from chaos.” the Indonesians to give refugees safe responsibility of journalists to hold passage. governments accountable and to be THE FRONTLNES She writes of crossing the freez- a “witness to the plight of ordinary WO RECENT BOOKS GIVE ing Chechen mountains and reports civilians.” T tribute to Marie Colvin, the vet- from the strongholds of the Tamil — by Susan Kille

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 15 mander assassinated by Al Qaeda in September 2001, talks to journalists New Books after a historic meeting of opposition MIDDLE EAST OBERT NICKELSBERG, A leaders; April 1992, Hamid Karzai R Time magazine contract pho- translates for President Sibghatul- tographer for 25 years, first entered lah Mojaddedi; March 1993, armed Afghanistan in 1988 by crossing guards block women from supplies the border from Pakistan with mu- of flour during a food shortage; Robert Nickelsberg jahideen. He returned frequently. January 1995, destroyed laboratory Afghanistan: A Distant War [Pre- A boy sells government newspapers equipment and books at a school in stel, October] collects 150 of his on a Kabul street in March 1992. an area controlled by the Taliban; color photographs spanning 25 years 1988 and shakes the hand of an Af- October 2004, a man votes in the from before the Soviet withdrawal ghan soldier as the Soviets begin to country’s first presidential election, through the shrinking U.S. presence. withdraw. Near the end, two lines where despite allegations of fraud Nickelsberg, an OPC board of American soldiers pass each oth- Karzai was declared winner; April member, covered the collapse of er one in May 2013: a bareheaded 2009, men rally in support of a law the Soviet-backed regime in 1992 group soberly facing the camera are with a provision declaring “a wife and the civil war that fol- going home and the other, walking in shall fulfill the sexual desires of her lowed. He witnessed the the opposite direction, are husband.” Taliban’s conquest, its fall helmeted replacements. Nickelsberg’s knowledge of Af- to the U.S.-led invasion In between, Nickelsberg, ghanistan earned over time and with in 2011 and its return to who has a reputation for on-the-ground reporting gives a rare power. The book includes being fearless, captured depth to his photos and commentary. his own insightful com- images of the seemingly mentary and essays by never-ending conflict NORTH AMERICA Jon Lee Anderson, Steve in the country with men IM LEHRER’S 21ST NOVEL Coll, Tim McGirk and fighting, injured and dead. J was inspired by conversation he others. Away from had in November 1963 as Near the beginning of the book, battlefields, Nickelsberg a reporter assigned to the a Soviet soldier sits atop a flower- portrays poverty, oppres- Dallas airport to cover Pres- bedecked armored vehicle in May sion and politics: April ident John F. Kennedy’s 1989, military cadets hold arrival and departure but roses aloft to celebrate the instead wrote about Kenne- 11th anniversary of the Af- dy’s death. Lehrer worked ghan Communist Party’s for the Dallas Times-Her- seizure of power; April ald, an afternoon paper UPCOMING EVENT: 1992, Ahmed Shah Mas- where a rewrite reporter soud, the mujahideen com- (Continued on Page 15)

Holiday Party Overseas Press Club of America January 7 40 West 45 Street New York, NY 10036 USA at the Algonquin (Details, page 4)

The OPC Awards Application Is Online at opcofamerica.org Deadline: January 30, 2014

OPC Bulletin • December 2013 • Page 16