SAJAforum

PRESS FREEDOM: South Asian nations fail to solve journalists' murders

South Asian countries - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India - are among the worst in the world at prosecuting the killers of journalists. A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, called the Impunity Index, only lists 13 countries, but it includes all the South Asian nations listed above, as well as Afghanistan, placing them in the company of Iraq (#1), Somalia (#3)and Sierra Leone (#2). India's press was praised as "one of the world's freest," but had 5 unsolved murders, making it a country where "politics and organized crime are dangerous stoies to cover."

More on the methodology:

CPJ’s Impunity Index, compiled for the first time this year, calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the population in each country. CPJ examined every nation in the world for the years 1998 through 2007. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included in this index. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained.

Some excerpts:

5. SRI LANKA

Fighting between government and separatist forces has long bled the nation. But journalists are more likely to be assassinated than to die in crossfire, with many of the victims ethnic Tamils. The victims include senior Tamil journalist Mylvaganam Nimalrajan, shot in his home in 2000. Nimalrajan’s murder is among eight unsolved cases here.

Impunity Index Rating: 0.408 unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants.

7. AFGHANISTAN

Despite the prolonged armed conflict in Afghanistan, journalists are more likely to be targeted for murder than to be killed in a combat situation. Seven cases are unsolved, including the 2007 slaying of local reporter Ajmal Naqshbandi. Running counter to the international trend, most victims have been foreign rather than local reporters.

Impunity Index Rating: 0.279 unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants.

DESI SPOTTING: A Marine takes on a bank

An unusual story from yesterday's New York Post, about Veejay Bhagwandeen, a Marine serving in Iraq. From Iraq GI wages war - against bank by Erin Calabrese:

It's bad enough dealing with surly bank officials on your lunch hour, but try it from a combat zone.

Brooklyn Marine Cpl. Veejay Bhagwandeen claims that North Fork Bank workers gave him the runaround - even demanding that he fax them documents from a war zone in Iraq - when he tried to get money to his ailing mother.

"Imagine bombs and bullets flying over your head, and an American [bank worker] says to you, 'Go find a fax machine.' Then [the worker] has the nerve to hang up on me - while I'm in Iraq!" said Bhagwandeen.

He filed a complaint with the state Division of Human Rights, claiming the bank discriminated against him because he was in the military.

Read the rest of the story, including how the Marine's mom, Soojdaye Bryan, was given a real run-around. Post your comments below.

POLITICS: Former marine Ashwin Madia for Congress

Ashwin Madia, a former marine who served in Iraq, has entered the race for Congress from Minnesota, in a seat being vacated by Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad.

From IALI, the Indian-American Leadership Initiative:

Madia is a first generation American, his parents came to the U.S. with $19 in their pockets. He graduated from Osseo High School, the University of Minnesota and NYU Law. After law school, when I’m sure many of his friends were accepting big-salary jobs with law firms all across the country, Ash enlisted in the Marine Corps and served four years, including a tour in Iraq.

Until recently, Madia worked as an associate at a law firm in Minneapolis.

Drawing on his experience in Iraq, Madia plans to make the war a major issue in his campaign. He also hopes to focus on balancing the budget and fighting global warming. What he stressed most frequently, however, is his desire for this campaign to be a real dialogue between the candidates. Madia says he wants as many debates and candidate forums as possible, noting that open congressional seats don’t come around very often.

With no elected experience and no history with party regulars, Madia certainly has an uphill climb. He’s seeking to break into politics in a congressional race that is likely to be among the most competitive in the country – and a race that already has an excellent DFL candidate. There is no question that he is an underdog in this race. That being said, Madia is certainly talented and articulate. Underestimate him at your own peril.

Coverage elsewhere:

• KSTP-TV: "Iraq veteran Madia to run for 3rd Congressional District"
• Pioneer Press: "Iraq war veteran to run for Ramstadt's seat in Congress"

Visit Ashwin Madia's campaign site.

MOVES: Bobby Ghosh Becomes World Editor of Time, Romesh Ratnesar on Book Leave

A double SAJA move, folks. Romesh Ratnesar, who has been the world editor of Time since 2004, is going on book leave and is being succeeded by Aparisim "Bobby" Ghosh, who's been in the magazine's Baghdad bureau for four-plus years (Ghosh, who was born and raised in India, is the first Indian and first non-American to hold the world editor title at Time; Ratnesar is an American born to Sri Lankan parents). From Time editor Rick Stengel's memo (reproduced in full below):

I’m happy to announce that Bobby Ghosh has been named World Editor. Based in New York, Bobby will be responsible for editing the domestic magazine’s international coverage. In that role, he will be working closely with Michael Elliott, who leads the increasing coordination of our international output across all editions and time.com. Bobby’s extraordinary work from Iraq and his dedicated support of TIME’s Baghdad bureau has been inspiring to us all.
<snip>
Bobby succeeds one of the great all-time TIME world editors, Romesh Ratnesar, who has departed for a well-deserved book leave. Romesh will be back in January in an important new role.

We decided not to disturb Ratnesar during his book leave, but did ask Ghosh to answer three questions (his answers are below). Also see a much longer SAJAforum Q&A with Ghosh right after his 2007 SAJA Convention salon (caught in action above by Preston Merchant) - he discussed his experiences as a reporter in Iraq. Please post your comments below (we'll make sure Ghosh sees them). More on Ratnesar in Mediabistro's profile, "So What Do You Do, Romesh Ratnesar?"

NOTE: Once again, the top two American newsweeklies have South Asians in charge of editing the international news for their domestic editions. Nisid Hajari is the foreign editor for Newsweek, and is Ghosh's counterpart. Fareed Zakaria, on the other hand, is editor of all the international editions, making him the counterpart of Michael Elliott, who's mentioned above.

[To reach Bobby Ghosh, e-mail saja(at)columbia.edu (subject line = pass onto Bobby Ghosh) or use the comments section below.]

THREE QUESTIONS FOR BOBBY GHOSH, WORLD EDITOR OF TIME

SAJAforum: Congrats on the new gig. How did you decide to move to HQ?
A: It was the sort of offer you don't refuse -- the chance to shape TIME's coverage of world news. But it was hard to give up Baghdad, especially my colleagues there. Luckily, my new job will allow me to travel to Iraq from time to time.

AWARDS: Moni Basu Wins Dart Center Fellowship

The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma is one of the most important media institutions today. Its mission:

The Dart Center is a global network of journalists, journalism educators and health professionals dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy. The Center also addresses the consequences of such coverage for those working in journalism.

It gives out the annual Ochberg fellowship:

Reporting responsibly and credibly on violence and traumatic events — on crime, family violence, natural disasters and accidents, war and genocide — is among the greatest challenges facing contemporary journalism. The Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship, now in its ninth year, was established by the Dart Center in order to better prepare journalists for this challenge. The fellowship is named for the Dart Center Executive Committee's Chairman Emeritus, Frank Ochberg, M.D., a psychiatrist and pioneer in the understanding of violence and trauma.

This year's winners include SAJAer Moni Basu of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who has done at least six tours of duty as a reporter in Iraq. Here's her fellowship bio:

Moni Basu is a national and international reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She has covered the Iraq war and spent five months embedded with a Georgia Army National Guard brigade. She is now covering soldiers' re-entry into civilian life. She has also reported from Cuba, Chile, Norway, Jordan, Kuwait and India. She covered the devastating 2001 earthquake in Ahmedabad, India, military suicides at Fort Bragg, SARS in Toronto and West Nile virus in Louisiana. In 2005 she was honored as Journalist of the Year by the Atlanta Press Association and has also won awards from the South Asian Journalists Association, Associated Press Managing Editors and the Society of Newspaper Design.

See Moni's farewell post for the AJC's Georgians @ War blog. Congrats to Moni and we wish her the best during her fellowship.

Post your comments below.

 

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Ayub Nuri on Fixers and War

The New York Time Magazine (July 29, 2007) carried a powerful essay by Ayub Nuri, an Iraqi journalist and "fixer" who explains what it is like to work in support of Western journalists. Read the powerful essay and see the fascinating video that accompanies it.

Nuri graduated from Columbia University's Journalism School last year and I have gotten to know him well. He's a soft spoken, serious young man, who has seen aspects of the war and the media industry that most of us never will.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum.org:

• See all entries in the SAJAforum Iraq category
  

OBIT: Dilip Ganguly, Veteran AP Journalist, Dies

Dilip Ganguly, a veteran AP newsman best-known for extensive coverage during the 1991 Iraq War, died Sunday, July 29, 2007, in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) India.  He had taken charge of the Kolkata bureau in India in April, after covering Sri Lanka for a decade. From the AP obit:

Dilip Ganguly, whose 21-year career at The Associated Press saw him report from Baghdad during the Gulf War, on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and on stories across South Asia, died on Sunday. He was 57.

Ganguly, in a coma since suffering a brain hemorrhage on July 14, died in Calcutta,
the eastern Indian city where he was based as a correspondent for the news service, said his son, Shonal Ganguly.

"Dilip loved being a journalist. His career had taken him around the world and he had shown repeatedly through his hard work and his earnestness just how good a journalist he could be," Shonal Ganguly said.

Among the high-profile assignments Ganguly undertook - and the one he was most proud of - was covering Baghdad at the start of the Gulf War in 1991.

Click on photo, from 1994, for hi-rez version

[ See some of his reportage below.]

Arul Louis, an editor with the New York Daily News, and former colleague, shared his thoughts on Ganguly with SAJAforum:

Dilip Ganguly was the quintessential journalist-adventurer: Always looking to get into
places where everyone else was trying to get out of.

From our days at the United News of India in the 1970s, Dilip dada was forever fighting for the toughest and most dangrous assignments: A riot in Old Delhi or an upheaval in Bangladesh. And dreaming of being a roving reporter hitting all the hot spots.

And he had an eye for the unusual -- and for looking at the usual from an unusual angle. (He once proposed a feature to the Illustrated Weekly on paan spitting habits; Kushwant Singh, the then-editor, sent back a two-word telegram: "Spit out.")

CONV: Q&A with Bobby Ghosh, Baghdad bureau chief for Time

[Sept. 3, 2007, UPDATE: Bobby Ghosh becomes world editor at Time.]

Following is a Q&A with Aparisim “Bobby” Ghosh, Baghdad bureau chief for Time Magazine and one of the most talked-about speakers at this year's SAJA Convention. Ghosh has reported from Iraq for more than four years; his essay "Life in Hell: A Baghdad Diary," was Time's August 2006 cover story, and provides an incredible window into just what Ghosh does and where he does it. SAJAforum's Rumee Singh spoke to Ghosh during the convention. He spoke about his "webcam marriage” to his wife, as well as his work on the front lines, his ethnic advantage and his encounters with Al Qaeda. (Photo by Preston Merchant)

What drives you to cover one of the most vulnerable places in the world? Why do you even remain in the city? 
Working in Baghdad has been terrifying in many ways for me. The atmosphere in Baghdad is very dangerous; you are exposed if you go out with a camera in a hand and any one working for a media organization is targeted for kidnap or assassination. But on the same hand, it has been intellectually satisfying for me - there's the opportunity to tell the most important story of our times - one that will have a lasting impact on the rest of the world. There is no single country that’s not been affected by Iraq. Iraq has changed the way the world views America, the way America views itself, the way the world views Islam, and the way Islam views itself; it has changed the war in terror, it has changed the way terrorists fight. Iraq is changing everything. 

Nobody forces you to go to Baghdad. There have been people who go and come back in 3 days and they've never been held against that. Every time I fly from New York to Baghdad the last thing my editor asks me is “Are you sure you want to go?  Do you know the repercussions?”  And my answer is always a yes. I know I will always want to go to Baghdad whether it’s a long trip or a short one for the rest of my life.

AWARDS: Rajiv Chandrasekaran wins Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, associate editor at the Washington Post and former Baghdad bureau chief, has been awarded the $60,000 Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction for his book Imperial Life in the Emerald City. His beat out some high-profile talent, including Ian Buruma, who was up for his book about the death of Theo van Gogh, called "Murder in Amsterdam." From the Associated Press:

The book, which claimed Britain's richest nonfiction prize, paints a picture of waste, incompetence and thwarted intentions within the Coalition Provisional Authority appointed to run U.S.-occupied Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It contrasts life in the heavily fortified Green Zone with the chaos unfolding outside.

Human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy, who headed the award's judging panel, said the book was "up there with the greatest reportage of the last 50 years" and praised Chandrasekaran's writing as "cool, exact and never overstated."

Check out the official award website. The prize is the richest nonfiction prize in Britain and is awarded by the BBC 4.

Earlier on SAJAforum:
Rajiv Chandrasekharan...

• SAJA Author Q&A: Rajiv Chandrasekaran on Iraq
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Baghdad Account headed for the Big Screen
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran to head What-went-wrong-with-war analysis

BOOKS: Interview with Vijay Prashad on "The Darker Nations"

The following is a SAJAforum interview of writer/professor/activist Vijay Prashad, conducted by fellow academic Rohit Chopra, currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Emory University who also runs the blog Antihistory/In Another Life (more on Rohit at the bottom).

Vijay and Rohit discuss some of the ideas in Vijay's latest book, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World. These include: Nehru and Gandhi's impact (or not) on the Third World, the Internet as an organizing tool, colonial and post colonial violence (Belgian Congo, Gujarat '02), and that war in Iraq. [Contact info for The New Press, Vijay's publisher, here.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAJAforum: The title of the book is a direct invocation of  W.E.B. Du Bois' idea of the "darker races of mankind"; as he put it "the millions of black men in Africa, America, and the Islands of the Sea, not to speak of the brown and yellow myriads everywhere" (p. 23). It is an intriguing phrase, immediately evoking solidarities beyond the narrow loyalties of chauvinistic nationalisms or the jingoism of my-country-right-or-wrong. What possible histories does this idea allow one to imagine and write?

I am a Du Bois junkie. I love reading his work, not only because he is a lyrical writer, but also because he was remarkably perceptive about developments in world history. In 1915, he wrote a great essay called "The African Roots of the War," which argued that World War I had its origins in the great power conflict over the colonization of Africa; it was an inter-imperialist war, as Lenin would write two years later, and not a war between nations.

Du Bois was able to ground what appears as a domestic conflict in the terms of world history. That was one of the important contributions of his historical methodology, signaled by the phrase "the darker nations." In other words, events in Europe and in Northern America, from the colonial era onward, cannot be seen outside of the colonial and imperial framework.

But more: tensions between peoples in the colonized world should not be read in cultural terms alone, but also seen for the way in which their political conflicts are often intensified by colonial structures. One contemporary writer who develops this line is Mahmood Mamdani, both in his book on Rwanda and in his essay on Darfur (for the London Review of Books). Resource crunches, a failure of political imagination, fights over the construction of the new political community -- these are some of the dynamics that are often reduced by chauvinistic nationalism.

Is the idea of the Third World obsolete in the face of global capitalism and neoliberalism?

My book is about the "project" which was the Third World. For me, the Third World was not a place, but it was this project. The Third World project challenged Europe and northern America on its terms: it said, you do not have the answers to the world's problems, but we do. The answer, the project, had three components: peace (disarmament using the moral force of the anti-colonial movements); bread (a New International Economic Order that included the creation of new rules for trade and development, including the creation of commodity cartels); dignity (that each part of the world had some cultural resources up to the task of the creation of better societies, that they did not have to rely upon European or North American discoveries and inventions alone to flourish - they could borrow and learn, but not be culturally suffocated).

IRAQ: Sudarsan Raghavan's Close Call

That's a photo of Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief, posted on SAJAforum (in an item about desis covering the war for Western media outlets) last month when he came to Columbia on a short break from Iraq. I wrote: "I went to school with Sudarsan and was delighted to see him safe and sound. He's heading back into Iraq shortly."

He's still safe, but had a brush with death on Thursday, April 12, when the bombers hit the Green Zone. Today's WP has a front-page, first-person story by him about what he saw and felt.

The bomber blew himself up no more than a few yards away. First, a brilliant flash of orange light like a starburst, then a giant popping sound. A gust of debris, flesh and blood threw me from my chair as if I were made of cardboard.

I was lying on a bed of shattered glass on the floor of the cafeteria in the Iraqi parliament building, covered with ashes and dust. Small pieces of flesh clung to my bluejeans. Blood, someone else's, speckled the left lens of my silver-rimmed glasses. Blood, mine, oozed from my left hand, punctured by a tiny shard of glass.

"Are you okay? Are you okay?" asked Saad al-Izzi, one of The Post's Iraqi correspondents, standing over me, his face framed by an eerie yellowish glow, his voice distant. I did not reply.

I had always thought about this moment. In Iraq, every journalist does. But I did not expect a bomber to take lives inside the Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi government and its backer, the United States.

Read the whole piece and listen to a six-minute audio story by him. See his bio and read some of his articles here. Huffington Post's Eat the Press calls the piece "must-read" and describes it thus:

The pure narrative movement of the piece, full of sudden temporal jumps and shifts in voice, only serves to underscore the nervy panic of the moment and its aftermath as Raghavan struggles to render the disjointed scene into something whole.

See the transcript of a WP chat with Sudarsan.

Post your comments below the front-page image from the paper below. Also: See SAJAforum items about Iraq, including SAJAers covering Saddam's execution. If you have updates/corrections to this list of South Asians covering Iraq let us know.

IRAQ: South Asian Journos Telling the Iraq Story

At right, a photo of Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief, on a rare visit to NYC. He spoke to students at his alma mater, Columbia Journalism School on Friday, March 23, 2007.

I went to school with Sudarsan and was delighted to see him safe and sound. He's heading back into Iraq shortly. See his bio and read some of his articles here.

He's one of several SAJA folks who are telling the
story of Iraq to major U.S./Western outlets.

Currently in Iraq:

• Aparisim "Bobby" Ghosh, Baghdad correspondent, is covering the story for Time and Time.com. A couple of his stories "Getting Over Saddam" and "Life in Hell: A Baghdad Story."
• Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post.
• Shashank Bengali, Africa correspondent, MacClatchy Newspapers (on short assignment; see his blog)
  

Were in Iraq:

• Moni Basu, staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has made six reporting trips to Iraq.
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post, now covering the Iraq-story-in-Washington full time. And author of "Imperial Life In the Emerald City," a definitive story of the early Iraq occupation.
• Reena Ninan, Fox News Baghdad correspondent, did a couple of tours of duty.
  
• Aneesh Raman, CNN Middle East correspondent, now based in Cairo, was there for several months, and then returned for the Saddam execution. Also see "Three Questions for Aneesh Raman.".
• Aditya Raval, Baghdad bureau chief, BBC (Feb. 2007-present); formerly, a producer in the BBC's Washington, D.C.

See SAJAforum items about Iraq, including SAJAers covering Saddam's execution.

THREE QUESTIONS: Adi Raval BBC Baghdad Bureau Chief

[UPDATE: Raval is back in Washington, and overseeing 2008 campaign coverage for the BBC.]

Adi Raval, a senior producer for the BBC in Washington (where he oversees White House coverage), is heading to Baghdad as Baghdad bureau chief. Because it's such a tough assignment, they do it in a rotation of short stints. He will be do another rotation in August for a month. This is the second time Raval's been to Iraq; he'd previously been there as producer for ABC News.

Three questions for Adi Raval, BBC's new Baghdad bureau chief.

Q: Congrats, I think! Aren't you worried about taking what seems to be the most dangerous assignment on the planet right now? What did you family say?
A: The bottom line is that if something happens to me, there's nothing they can do about it anyways.  So it's not worth worth me worrying about them worrying about me.

Q: Any thoughts on being an American representing the BBC in Iraq?
A: The story is in Iraq and my challenge will be to get beyond the daily suicide attack and get to the heart of the issue even though security restrictions will not necessarily permit the kind of coverage our viewers need to see from the BBC.

Q: Any tips for young South Asians looking to work in TV?
A: Aim high and try to work for the organization that you want to work for.  Do not settle.  Always look for inspiration and remember that real journalism is about telling our viewers and listeners what they need to know, not what they want to know.

FILM: Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Baghdad account headed for screen (CORRECTION)

CORRECTION: Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote us to say that there is no budget for the film adaptation of his book, and that there isn't even a formal deal between Universal and director Paul Greengrass. We'd cited a $50 million budget as per an article in India Abroad.

Revised post follows, without a budget (or certitude)...

SAJAer and Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran's highly acclaimed "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" may be turned into a film, to be directed by Paul Greengrass (United 93). Currently, Greengrass is working on the $100 million Bourne Ultimatum, with Matt Damon. From Variety:

According to insiders, pic will be "more scripted" in advance than "United 93," whose screenplay evolved from Greengrass' treatment during production.

Greengrass is on the record as scathingly critical of what he sees as the U.S.' blunders in Iraq, describing the invasion as "the most calamitous decision of our generation."

Rajiv isn't saying too much about the project, but he told SAJAforum he's "thrilled that a director as accomplished as Paul Greengrass wants to turn 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City' into a movie. Paul is a brilliant guy, and he has a very compelling vision for the project."

In Rediff, Arthur Pais says Greengrass is well-suited for the material:

Four years ago, his low-budget film Bloody Sunday, a dramatisation of the Irish civil rights protest march in Northern Ireland and subsequent massacre by British troops in 1972, became an art-house hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America. It also had a good run in Europe after winning the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival. And United 93, which was made for about $25 million, received some of the best reviews last year and grossed an impressive $70 million worldwide.

Pais also predicts many little roles for Indian and Pakistani actors, especially for kitchen scenes. A Hollywood crossover for a sultry but sensitive cook, played by Shilpa Shetty perhaps?

 

Check out SAJAforum's earlier interview with Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

IRAQ: Indian-American Couple Serves in U.S. Army

A story from India Abroad about an unusual couple in Iraq: Cyriac Alencheril and his wife, Fixie.
From Indian couple serves in the US Army, by George Joseph.

At a time when the United States Army is struggling to recruit more people, Sergeant Cyriac Alencheril, who is serving in Iraq, encouraged his wife to join the military.

His wife Fixie recently completed the rigorous training or boot camp at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, successfully. 'We are happy for the rare honour of being the first-ever Indian couple in the US Army. We feel proud of our achievement,' Cyriac, 35, wrote from Iraq. 'Somebody needs to pull the guard and prove that Indian Americans are not far behind. I believe that we represent a lot of Indians.'

A parachute rigger, he is currently serving as a supply sergeant in Iraq. Cyriac created news three years ago when he played the tabla to win the first prize in the instrumental solo category of the US Army's 2003 Margaret 'Skippy' Lynn Stars of Tomorrow Entertainment Contest.

Read the entire piece. Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

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.

IRAQ: Wash Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran to head What-went-wrong-with-war analysis

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" and former Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post, is now going to help head the Post's coverage of how Washington is going to handle the war in Iraq. Here's the internal memo that was posted on Romenesko...

... In his new assignment, Rajiv will focus on enterprise reporting taking us behind the scenes in the war over the Iraq war that is playing out in Washington, working together closely with Pentagon correspondent Tom Ricks and The Post’s White House and diplomatic team. As assistant managing editor for continuous news, Rajiv has played a key role in establishing our web site's presence and in developing the newsroom's web strategy. At the end of his temporary assignment on National, we expect Rajiv to return to an editing position.

See Chandrasekaran's December 2006 appearance on The Daily Show.
See NYT review of "Imperial Life."
See RajivC.com, his official site.

Check out SAJAforum's earlier interview with Rajiv, conducted by Sree Sreenivasan and Gopal Ratnam.

JITN: Three Questions for CNN's Aneesh Raman

[JITN = Journalists In The News]

Aneesh Raman, the CNN reporter who has gained major prominence recently as a Baghdad correspondent and for his coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, has just been named CNN's Midddle East correspondent, based in Cairo. Here's an excerpt from the CNN memo, which was published on TVNewser:

"Dear colleagues, Today I am pleased to announce a number of significant appointments within CNN's international newsgathering operations. I'm particularly delighted to have been able to make such a large number of strategically important changes from within the CNN family. This is a testament to the depth and expertise of the staff we have working at CNN.

Aneesh Raman has been appointed Middle East Correspondent and will be based in Cairo. This new title reflects his role in reporting from across the Middle East. Previously based in Baghdad, Aneesh has reported from numerous places in the past few months including Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

SAJAforum.org asked him three quick questions.

  Q: How does this new assignment change your life?      

      RAMAN: It gives me a home. For the past 6 months I've literally
      been jumping from country to country with two suitcases
      and nothing more, so I'm excited to finally have a place
      of my own in Cairo. Other than that it changes little. As
      Middle East Correspondent, I will be based in Cairo but
      traveling often throughout the region. After a year in
      Baghdad, and most of the past few months in Iran, it is
      quite apparent that the Middle East is going through
      seminal change. To see it up close has and will continue
      to be a phenomenal opportunity.

      Q: What have you learned about yourself the past couple
      of years covering the tsunami, Iraq, Lebanon?

      RAMAN: That my addiction to news is so strong it's withstood all
      the difficulties that come with this lifestyle. To be a
      journalist is one thing, to live the life of one quite
      another. But the opportunity to chronicle generational
      events, from the tsunami to Iraq, keeps the addiction
      alive and well. ?These are, for me, defining times for
      foreign correspondents. With rising conflict around the
      world, news remains a key element to broadening
      perspectives on all sides. It might be said by every
      journalist as at every point of their careers, but to me,
      the news has rarely felt as relevant as it does today.

      Q: Any tips/suggestions for young South Asian journalists
      in the U.S. who'd like to become foreign correspondents?

      RAMAN: There will be moments of resignation, when you think
      there's no way things are going to work out. There will
      be moments of frustration, when you did all the right
      things and still didn't get the right result. And there
      will be moments of immobility, when you think you're
      stuck in a rut. The key to surviving all that is having
      an undying passion for news, and knocking on every door
      at the right time with the right pitch. Don't give up.
      The opportunities that await those who make it into
      international news are just too incredible to pass up.

See the Wikipedia entry and official CNN profile.

Post your reaction to this news (or your thoughts on Raman's work) in the comments section below.

SAJA AUTHOR Q&A: Rajiv Chandrasekaran on Iraq

A SAJA GLOBAL WEB EVENT - LISTEN TO RECORDING BELOW

SAJA Author Q&A with Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post editor and
"Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone"
via Skypecast - (basically a conference call using free Skype software)

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006
1-2 pm Washington/New York time l 9 pm in Baghdad

[ Click to listen to Rajiv's Q&A in MP3 format (52 minutes) - or right-click (or Apple click for Mac people) to save the MP3 file onto your own computer,  iTunes/iPod, etc. ]

Join the next SAJA Skypecast and listen into a Q&A with Washington Post editor RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, whose timely new book is "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" -  more on the book, which has been getting terrific attention, at Rajivc.com

You will be able to listen to him being interviewed by SAJA members Gopal Ratnam  and Sree Sreenivasan  and they will take your questions - in advance at sajaHQ@gmail.com or via the comments section below or during the session. 

A recording of the Skypecast will be available later in the day for downloading right here on SAJAforum.

To participate, create a free Skype account at http://www.skype.com (and download the PC or Mac software).

At the appropriate time, go to the following link and hit "Join This Skypecast" - https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/skypecast/detailed.html?id_talk=36696

or go to Skypecast.com and look for "featured Skypecasts"

[ Skypecast FAQ: http://support.skype.com/?_a=knowledgebase&_j=subcat&_i=42 ]

Skype is very useful beyond just these group chats. Free computer to computer calls anywhere in the world; free computer to landline or cell in the US or Canada till year-end.

Please send us your questions via e-mail in advance or post your questions in the comments section (one-time, free registration required) below!

If you have suggestions for future Newsmaker Q&As, please let us know via e-mail: sajaHQ@gmail.com