Al-Jazeera Journalist Died
On Friday, May 21, I learned U.S. fire killed a member of a television news crew working for Al-Jazeera. Later, I learned his name: Rashid Hamid Wali, known as Abu Nur. My break from computers was going well until then. If I could have easily gotten to a computer, I would have blogged it. If I could have been connected, I would have known where to go and what to do to find out what happened. In a land without the Internet and radio, I didn’t know what to do. Looking it up when I had computer access again was easier and more efficient than trying to watch CNN. I had already tried that for an hour with no luck other than a few words at the bottom of the screen. I wasn’t able to find a newspaper that reported the death. I kept thinking: Doesn’t this person have a name? Isn’t this important? How many other journalists have died covering this Irag war? (The article linked above gives the number 27.) What happened? Was anyone else in the crew injured? Are Al-Jazeera journalists targets now? Was it intentional?
May 28th, 2004 at 11:38 pm
it does bother me that you weep for al-jazeera journalists, who feed the arab world lies to create hatred for our troops. then you wish us all a “happy memorial day.” what is so happy about american war dead? you seem very professional and intelligent, but your politics are unfortunate.
May 30th, 2004 at 11:15 am
Anytime anyone dies or gets injured during the conflict, I feel for that person and his/her loved ones. Since my blog deals with news librarianship and journalism, I keep an eye out for news about journalists and war correspondents covering the conflicts. One of the running inquiries we have right now is keeping track of the journalists who die covering the conflict. I wouldn’t define what I was feeling as “weeping.” If you don’t like my politics, don’t read my blog.