Reporting on Iraq: "Mouse journalism is best we can do"

Posted by Anna-Maria Mende on October 14, 2005 at 5:32 PM

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent of The Independent from the UK, said on Press Gazette, that due to the dangerous situation the best way he can report on Iraq now is "mouse journalism". With "mouse journalism" he means that he pops up at the scene of an event and stays "just long enough to get the story, before the men with guns arrive". Fisk said, "If I go to see someone in any particular location, I give myself 12 minutes, because that is how long I reckon it takes a man with a mobile phone to summon gunmen to the scene in a car. So, after 10 minutes I am out. Don't be greedy. That's what reporting is like in Iraq ... This country is nowhell — a disaster. You cannot imagine how bad it is." Because the situation is not getting better, Fisk don't know whether he can keep on reporting. He said, "It is very sad to have to say that I don't know if we can go on reporting in Iraq. I don't know if I can personally keep on going back. This last trip there was so dangerous and frightening, I actually said to some people that we were going to have to debate whether the risks are worth it all." Source: Press Gazette

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