IRAQ: South Asian Journos Cover Saddam Execution

Friday, Dec. 29, 2006, 8:30 p.m., NY time: With wall-to-wall coverage on the cable networks and on the Internet of the iminent execution of Saddam Hussein, below is a list of some of the South Asian journalists helping to tell the story. On at least three major U.S. media outlets, the story is being told, in a major part, by South Asian journalists. I can't think of a precedent for
this.

[ UPDATE 10:06 pm: On CNN, Aneesh Raman announced that Arab networks are reporting the execution has taken place "10 minutes ago". According to TVNewser.com, the popular TV news blog, Raman and CNN were the first to break the news to a U.S. audience:

Saddam: CNN First With Execution, Citing Al Hurra; FNC & MSNBC Follow

CNN, 10:06pm: Aneesh Raman: "Al Hurra television in Iraqi is now reporting that the execution of Saddam Hussein was carried out ten minutes ago."

According to Matt Drudge at DrudgeReport.com:

CNN Broke at 10:06... FOX 10:08... NBC first broadcast net to report execution of Hussein at 10:14 pm, ET -- CBS went up at 10:18 -- ABC up at 10:25... ]

In Baghdad:

• Aneesh Raman, CNN Middle East correspondent based in Cairo, is back in Baghdad, reporting live. He also contributed to this CNN.com story, "Hussein Executed with Fear in his Face." Also see "Three Questions for Aneesh Raman."
• Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad correspondent, is covering the story for the Washington Post. His lead story on Dec. 30: "Saddam Hussein is Put to Death." Click on image on right to see full WP front page.
• Aparisim "Bobby" Ghosh, Baghdad correspondent, is covering the story for Time and Time.com. Here is one of his stories, currently the lead story on Time.com: "Getting Over Saddam."

In the US/Canada:

• Hari Sreenivasan, co-anchor of ABC World News Now (which airs from 3:30-5 a.m.), will be anchoring some of the coverage.
• Reena Ninan, former Baghdad correspondent for Fox News Channel, is going to be covering the story on Saturday, Dec. 30.
• Riz Khan, Washington anchor for Al-Jazeera International, is anchoring some of the coverage.
• Nisid Hajari, foreign editor of Newsweek, is editing part of the coverage.
• Romesh Ratnesar, foreign editor of Time, is editing part of the coverage.
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of the highly praised Iraq book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" and former Baghdad bureau chief of the Washington Post, is part of the coverage as he moves into a new, specially-created Iraq-oriented beat out of Washington.
• Adi Raval, senior White House producer, is covering the story for the BBC out of D.C.
• Deen Karim, producer, is covering the story for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto.
• Rena Golden, head of CNN International, continues to play a major role in the coverage.
• [Martin Bashir, co-anchor of the iconic "Nightline" program on ABC, was not on air on Friday night.]
• [Zain Verjee, CNN State Dept. correspondent, isn't covering this story because she's anchoring CNN's coverage of the Hajj].

[Update: Other SAJA members who have covered/are covering Iraq for major news orgs include:
Moni Basu of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, who has done two tours of duty.
Aditya Raval of the Washington bureau of the BBC is moving to Iraq in February.]

If you know others, including foreign correspondents of South Asian publications, please e-mail saja@columbia.edu or feel free to post your comments below.

Comments

[Jaya Kamlani]

Sree, thanks for your updates on Saddam's execution. I watched Aneesh Raman on CNN last night until it was time to call it a day. He was calm and composed while he reported on the grave news despite all that went around him. All these months that he has covered Iraq, he has done with such professionalism that he makes us Indians all proud. I have watched other Indian journalists from time to time, and they are just as good. I wish them all well because they are mighty brave to be out there in dangerous places to deliver unbiased news to us all.

One issue you may want to address on your blog in the future is: What do South Asians think of "capital punishment"? I think this is a good subject to debate and you will probably hear multiple views on this subject.

-- Jaya Kamlani

[Gajendra Budhathoki]

It is really issue of humanism. In Nepal, Goverement and all politicle party has condemns the execution of Saddam . Nepal's Priminister Girija Prasad Koirala said that , the death penalty is against human civilisation. All politicle parties includinf CPN UML, Nepali Congress (Democreatic), CPN (Moaist), Snyukta Bammorcha and other are aorganised rally againest that exucation. Nepalese people are remembaring past unfurtunate event when 12 Nepalese killed by Iraqi terrorist, and asking that: What is deferent beetween Saddam, these iraqi terrorist and Bush.

[Jaya Kamlani]

Please check out this New York Times blog for reactions on Saddam's death. There are 2,065 comments already by this morning. Some are very strong against the present U.S administration. Most of them state that Saddam did deserve some form of punishment for the suppression of his people and the killings of so many, but they say that his execution was not the way to go (very unChristian they say), and nothing will be resolved in Iraq by having carried out a death penalty against him. An eye-for-an-eye does not resolve things. Interesting read of how people in America feel about the situation in Iraq. Here is the website:

Source: http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=119

-- Jaya Kamlani