Sunday, August 17, 2003

The New York Times, Misleading Headlines and Cameraman Mazen Dana

By Abu Spinoza

Here’s a classic example of a misleading headline, “British Cameraman Shot Dead Near Baghdad." The U.S. army shoots a Palestinian cameraman in occupied Iraq. Yet the New York Times headline says, “British Cameraman Shot Dead Near Baghdad.” Do not the New York Times headline writers read the story? Or can’t they bring themselves to acknowledge that Palestinian journalists are killed by occupation armies not just in Palestine but elsewhere too?

Note that Mr. Mazen Dana had been awarded by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) with an International Press Freedom Award in November 2001 for the coverage of Hebron in the West Bank. He was shot at least three times in 2000. When accepting the award, he said, “Words and images are a public trust and for this reason I will continue with my work regardless of the hardships, even if it costs me my life.” This brave and honest man ended up paying with his life. May he rest in eternal peace and may his spirit live on.

Let’s call upon the international journalists, those not in bed with state power, to investigate this death and punish those responsible for it. Let’s also ask: Why can’t the New York Times accurately represent facts? Why do they mislead with headlines unwarranted by filed news reports?

In an updated posting of the story on its website, the New York Times changed the AP story’s headline to read, “Reuters Cameraman Shot Dead Near Baghdad."

August 17, 2003
British Cameraman Shot Dead Near Baghdad
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:39 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP)—A Reuters cameraman was shot and killed Sunday while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the London-based news agency said.

Witnesses reported that Mazen Dana, 41, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad when he was shot, Reuters said.

A Reuters staffer told The Associated Press in Baghdad that Dana, a Palestinian, appeared to have been shot by U.S. soldiers as he was videotaping outside the Abu Ghraib prison after a mortar attack there Sunday, in which six prisoners were killed and about 60 others were wounded.

The staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the videotape in Dana’s camera showed two U.S. tanks coming toward him, two shots, apparently from the tanks, ringing out and Dana falling to the ground. He was taken away by a U.S. helicopter for treatment.

``Mazen was one of Reuters’ finest cameramen and we are devastated by his loss. He was a brave and an award winning journalist who had worked in many of the world’s hotspots,’’ Stephen Jukes, Reuters’ global head of news, said in a statement.

``He was committed to covering the story wherever it was and he was an inspiration to friends and colleagues at Reuters and throughout the industry.’’

A U.S. military statement issued in Baghdad confirmed ``a fatal accident involving a civilian at Abu Ghraib prison’’ and said an investigation was underway.

Dana’s death brings to 17 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the war started March 20.

An outspoken critic of the Israeli government’s treatment of journalists, Dana was honored by the Committee to Protect Journalists with an International Press Freedom Award in November 2001 for his work covering conflict in his hometown of Hebron in the West Bank. He was shot at least three times in 2000, according to the citation on the group’s Web site.

``Words and images are a public trust and for this reason I will continue with my work regardless of the hardships, even if it costs me my life,’’ Dana said after accepting the award.

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