NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Vm. 60 No. 2 SuMMER 2006 Five Dollars Journalists: On the Subject of Courage 'Courage, I discovered while covering the "dirty war" in Argentina, I I I I is a relatively simple matter of ! I I overcoming fear. I realized one day that I could deal with the idea that I would be killed, simply by accepting it as a fact. The knot in my stomach loosened considerably after that. There was, after all, no reason to fear being killed once that reality had been accepted. ! I It is fear itself that makes one afraid.' I I' I' I ROBERT Cox, ON TELLING THE STORY OF THE 'DISAPPEARED' " to promote and elevate the standards of journalism" -Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation. Vol. 60 No. 2 NIEMAN REPORTS Summer 2006 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Sarah Hagedorn Design Editor Diane Novetsky Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Editorial in March, June, September and December Telephone: 617-496-6308 by the Nieman Foundation at Hai-varcl University, E-Mail Address: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. [email protected] Su bscriptions/B us iness Internet Address: 1elephone: 617-496-2968 www.nieman.ha1-vard.edu E-Mail Address: [email protected] Copyright 2006 by the President and Fellows of Ha1-vard College. Subscription $20 a year, S35 for two years; acid $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies S5. Second-class postage paid at Boston, Back copies are available from the Nieman office. Massachusetts and additional entries. Please address all subscription correspondence to POSTMASTER: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Send address changes to and change of address information to Nieman Reports, P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. P.O. Box 4951, ISSN Number 0028-9817 Manchester, NH 03108. Vol. 60 No. 2 F,MAN Summer 2006 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVAR D UNIVERSITY Reflections on Courage: International 4 Courage as a Stoty Needing to Be Told BY LANCE MORROW 6 When Death Seems Inevitable BY ROBERT Cox 8 Climbing to Freedom Word By Word BY JosE A. MARTINEZ-SOLER 10 Murder, Threats, Fires and Intimidation in Gambia BY ALAGI YORRO ]ALLOW 13 Violence in Liberia Extends to Journalists BY ISAAC BANTU 15 Dictatorship and Democracy Require Different Kinds of Courage BY SUNDAY DARE 18 A War Reporter Tries to Understand What Courage Is BY ALEXIS SINDUHIJE 19 When Corporate Managers Nudge News Decisions BY PHILIPPA GREEN 21 Repressive Actions Give Way to Business Realities BY SHYAKA KANUMA 23 Burmese Reporters in Exile Confront Different Risks BY AUNG ZAw 25 When a Journalist's Voice Is Silenced ADAPTED ARTICLE BY PHILIP J. CUNNINGHAM 28 Journalism's Triumphant Journeyin Nepal ADAPTED ARTICLE BY KANAK MANI D1xrr 29 Threats Come atJournalists in Pakistan From All Sides BY BEENA SARWAR 31 Self-Censorship as a Reaction to Murders by Drug Cartels BY RAYMUNDO RIVA-PALACIO 33 A Quiet Courage BY KATHLEEN CURRIE 34 What We Learned About the Courage of Women Journalists BY ]UDY WOODRUFF 35 Truth in the Crossfire BY ]!NETH BEDOYA LIMA 36 Trauma Lingers After Escaping the Danger BY IGNACIO "NACHO" G6MEZ 38 Persevering Despite the Dangers BY MAURICIO LLOREDA 39 Death Threats Are Sent to Tty to Stop Reporting BY KIM BOLAN 41 Challenging a Democratic Government's Secrecy BY RussELL MJLLs 42 The Courage ofJournalists in the Middle East BY RAMI G. KHOURI 44 Courage Can Mean Pushing Gradually Against Boundaries in Iran BY OMID MEMARIAN 45 Western Correspondents Display Cold War Courage BY LARRY HEINZERLING 48 A DifficultJourney From Repression to Democracy BY ANN COOPER 49 Government Clampdowns on Newspapers Send Reporting Online BY ANDREI KHRAPAVITSKI 51 Courage Emerges From the Work Journalists Do BY AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON 53 Going to Tell What Others Have Forgotten I1 TERVIEW Wrrn ANNE NIVAT 55 Assessing the llisks Reporters in Iraq Confront EXCERPT FROM a LECTURE BY ]OllN Burns 56 War Teaches Lessons About Fear and Courage BY CHERYL DIAZ MEYER 60 Witnessing War to Send Its Images Home ADAPTED REMARKS BY SANTIAGO LYON 61 When Bearing Witness Overrides a Reporter's Fear BY JANINE DI GIOVANNI 63 The Survival Mode of Reporting From a War Zone INTERVIEW Wm-1 FARNAZ FASSII-II 67 Teamwork Replaces Ego on the Frontlines of War BY BARRY MoooY 68 Transforming Anger at Journalists' Deaths Into Action BY RODNEY PINDER Reflections on Courage: United States 71 The Forces Threatening Journalism BY ]AY HARRIS 72 Telling a Sto1y That No Other Newspaper Will Tell BY STEPHEN G. BLOOM 74 H.L. Mencken: Courage in a Time of Lynching BY MARION ELIZABETH RODGERS 76 Heroes in the Tough Transition to Digital News BY DAVIS "Buzz" MERRITT 78 Public Support Wanes, Some Journalists Press On BY BARRY SUSSMAN 80 Courage of the Wise and Patient Kind BY GENEVA OVERHOLSER 81 Investigative Journalism Doesn't Win Many Friends BY CHARLES LEWIS 83 Seeking Journalistic Courage in Washington, D.C. BY WALTER PINCUS 84 The Muslim Cartoon Controversy Exposed an Absence of Courage ADAPTED ARTICLE BY DouG MARLETTE 86 A Distinction Journalists Like to Ignore BY LAUREL LEFF 88 The Embrace of Principled Stands BY GENE ROBERTS AND HANK KLIBANOff 90 The Difficult Isolation Courage Can Bring BY HooDING CARTER III 92 Editorial Pages: Why Courage Is Hard to Find BY ]IM BOYD 93 Risking Relationships as a Measure of Courage BY SHERYL McCARTHY 95 A Local Newspaper Endures a Stormy Backlash BY DEAN MILLER 98 Courage: What Network News Needs Now BY BILL WHEATLEY 99 The Road Traveled From Journalism to Jail BY DAVID A. SYLVESTER 100 1\vo Sides of Courage BY Eu REED 3 Curator's Corner: What We Share About Courage BY BoB GILES 103 Nieman Notes COMPILED BY LOIS FIORE 103 Covering the Sago Mine Disaster BY FRANK LANGflTT 105 Class Notes 115 Encl Note: Conscience and Integrity in Journalism BY ]IM DOYLE 2 Nieman Reports I Summer 2006 Curator's Corner What We Share About Courage By Bob Giles n the working life of most American journalists, courage After a brief exile there, and with help from the Committee does not typically define what we do. Holding public to Protect Journalists, he found sanctua111 as a member of I officials and corporate leaders accountable, digging that Nieman class. through files and records and challenging what political This spring, David Sylvester, a 1986 Nieman Fellow, called and business leaders say can be difficult. Resisting a court to say that during an assignment in Guatemala he'd encoun­ order to answer questions about sources can result in seri­ tered three investigative reporters for the weekly newspaper, ous consequences. But in a society in which the rule of law elPerioclico, who were under threat by the government as and First Amendment press freedoms prevail, these activities a consequence of their reporting. They were determined do not require an unusual degree of courage. to continue their work but needed to learnmore about in­ There are dangerous assignments for U.S. journalists, vestigative reporting. "What could the Nieman Foundation to be sure-combat coverage and editorializing about civil do to help them?" Sylvester asked me. rights in the South in times gone by come to mind. But These journalists' commitment to their reporting inspired the daily routines of our nation's newsrooms are not life us to create a "mini" fellowship to bring them to Cambridge threatening. fora week in mid-May. They worked with The Boston Globe's I did not appreciate the fullmeaning of this until soon Spotlight Te am, attended a watchdog journalism confer­ after I arrived at Lippmann House in August 2000, when a ence presented by Investigative Reporters and Editors and phone call from Tim Golden, a New York Times reporter The Associated Press Managing Editors NewsTrain program and 1996 Nieman Fellow, brought Ignacio Gomez, a young at Lippmann House, and met with Nieman Fellows. They Colombian investigative reporter, into our lives. Nacho, as talked about the difficulties of their journalistic work in he is known, had been forcedto flee Colombia-his country, Guatemala; one described how his home was ransacked where more than 30 journalists had been murdered-after by government police looldng forrecords and of the death his newspaper, El Espectaclor, published stories in which threats made to the paper's owner by agents who held him Colombian police and military were linked with violent and his familyhostage in their home. right-wing paramilitaries. In one of the stories, a Colombian In telling of their experiences, Gomez, Nyarota, our new military colonel was said to have masterminded the 1997 friends from Guatemala, and journalists in many Nieman massacre in Mapiripan, in which right-wing paramilitaries classes, recent and past, have taken other journalists to killed nearly 30 people for allegedly supporting left-wing places deep inside themselves where an understanding guerrillas. Nacho received hundreds of death threats after of what courage feels and looks like emerges. What we've that article was published. learned from them is how what's happened has toughened Nacho joined the 2001 Nieman class and he, along with their resolve to do what journalists do even when clangeris several other fellows, reminded us all of places where the all around them. Often, too, what Nieman colleagues from practice of journalism is a courageous act. abroad and the United States absorb from these exchanges In January 2003, we met Geoff Nyarota, the founder and is a greater appreciation of the inestimable value a free editor of The Daily News in Zimbabwe.