The recent fighting in Georgia and South Ossetia was amongst the most dangerous for journalists. Five news staff were killed in five days with at least ten more wounded. Try this video of two Turkish news teams under fire on the Georgia - South Ossetia border.
Two were injured, one in the eye, one in the shoulder. A student at City University, Ahmet Gormez provided this translation:
-…They must be Georgian forces (soldiers open fire)
- Are we ok, are we ok
- No no no,
- Are we ok
- No no Levent's been shot.
- Move (the car) back,
(soldiers start firing again)
-back, back!
-Cumhur, are you ok? Cumhur, are you ok?
-Get down!
-Tires are gone!
-Ah!
-Allah!
-Esseduenla ilahe illallah… (I believe Allah is the only God – The last prayer of a Muslim that Muslims do when they believe they die)
- Esseduenla ilahe illallah…
- Esseduenla ilahe illallah…
-Ok mates calm down, don't move, stay still. Calm down, is everyone ok?
-Press… Press… Press…
-Press…
-Is the car broken?
-Ok brothers calm down!
-Isn't car working?
-No, tires been hit
-Calm down, Calm down, ok
-They'll come next to us now, everyone should be calm ok? Is everyone ok boys?
-We're ok, are you?
-I got shot from the arm
-Ok calm down boys
-Mates, I had a wound from my head. I feel ok for now but a few minutes later…
-Don't put your head up!
-Mates, I'm loosing a lot of blood, look. Can you immediately… do something from the back?
-Can't you show a white flag?
-Anyone has a white t-shirt inside?
-You have a monopod, put something on it.
-Hilmi, please
-Put it on the monopod
-Give me the monopod (driver put it's t-shirt to the monopod and takes it out of sunroof)
-The guy (soldier) is there, I can see him. He's making a sign. We will walk back.
-Back?
-Yes.
-Brother, give me the bandage.
(Journalists leaves the car)
-Ambulance!
- Ambulance!
-Journalist! Press! Ambulance!
-Pain killers are there give me a painkiller right now!
-Press! Press!
(Soldiers say something while aiming the gun to the journalists)One of the soldiers says Dabaj! (As far as I remember it means fast in Russian) and kicks the cameraman"
It's just one of a number of incidents...
The respected US TV News analyst Andrew Tyndall says Iraq is disappearing from US screens.
It started last September, when Gen David Petraeus testified to Congress that the so-called surge, the US troop reinforcement, had been accompanied by a moderation in Iraq's sectarian violence. President George Bush declared the build-up a success and announced a timetable for the surge to be reversed.That was when that light was switched off. In the nine months since Petraeus testified, the three networks' nightly newscasts combined have devoted a total of 249 minutes to the Iraq War. That is an average of six minutes a week, in contrast to a 26 minute average for the entire previous five year period.
Sad to hear of Charles Wheeler's death at the age of 85 from cancer. We won't see his like again. His values were forged in the second world war and brought to bear on the post war world. Everyone who worked with him had nothing but the highest respect for him - "the reporter's reporter". I was never lucky enough to work with him, although we did get to know each other. I found him warm, generous, but with a disconcerting shrewd bluntness. He was wiry in every sense with an unflinching eye that seemed to look deep into you. Working almost to the end, he'll be greatly missed.
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