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John Owen, who directed The Freedom Forum European Center until its closure this
fall, tells the story of a British journalist, untrained in the coverage of war, who nearly
loses her life in Afghanistan as a reminder of why training—that is now available—is so
critical for reporters whose job takes them into hostile environments. Nate Thayer, an
investigative journalist, uses his experiences from years of reporting in Cambodia on
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot to explain why today so many staff journalists rely on the
legwork of freelancers to bring context to their foreign news coverage. American
University professor Christopher Simpson offers us his expertise about satellite
images, explaining what information these photographs can give journalists and why the
U.S. government is blocking reporters’ access to them. Joanne Miller, art director at
The Charlotte Observer, describes how her newspaper uses graphics to help readers
better understand the coverage of the terrorism story.
During the Nieman Foundation’s Watchdog Conference in September, Harvard Law
School professor Charles Nesson moderated a discussion about how journalists ask
probing questions, focusing on coverage of terrorism and whether journalists are asking
“the right question.”
Boston Globe photographer Stan Grossfeld went to New York City after September
11 and returned with images that probe the human spirit in the midst of destruction.
Geneive Abdo, a longtime Tehran correspondent for The Guardian, illuminates the
difficulties Western journalists confront in reporting about the Islamic world. She
observes that many American reporters “reveal an intellectual laziness and a general
unwillingness to cover the Muslim world in a way that allows readers to view it on its
own terms without moral judgment, which is, after all, the way in which understanding
is deepened.” Williams College professor David B. Edwards, who is working to
preserve a vast archive of reporting about Afghanistan during the 1980’s, shares
photographs taken during an earlier war as part of a controversial journalism project.
Reza, a photographer who has traveled often to Afganistan, offers his look at the
country’s fighters and her people. Fazal Qureshi, chief editor of Pakistan Press
International, writes about the forces of intimidation that play upon his country’s
independent press. Suffolk University professor Abdelmagid Mazen, an Eygptian by
birth, explains what it is like to experience dual coverage of the war on terrorism as he
switches between Al-Jazeera’s satellite feed and American news coverage. Danny
Schechter, executive editor of Globalvision’s mediachannel.org, describes how his
Web-based global news service helps readers dig deeper and broader for answers to
questions such as why the events of September 11 happened. And Dale Fuchs, an
American who works for the national Spanish daily, El Mundo, shows us how her native
country is portrayed to people living in Spain—“as a high-tech bully wreaking havoc on
the poor with its array of terrible toys”—then explains why. ■
Nieman Reports / Winter 2001 5