Sunday, April 24, 2005

Every Picture Tells a Story

 
Photo journalists are in the line of fire again. Reuters reports that
    A television cameraman working for the Associated Press news organisation was killed on Saturday after being shot three times in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the AP said.
An AP photographer was wounded in the same incident.
The agency said Associated Press Television News cameraman Saleh Ibrahim was killed when he went to report on an explosion in the city, about 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.
Gunfire broke out at the site and both Ibrahim and photographer Mohamed Ibrahim (no relation) were hit.
On April 9th, also in Mosul, a video cameraman was wounded and then taken into custody by American forces as a suspected terrorist collaborator. In Baghdad back in December in the notorious Haifa Street incident, a cameraman gained access to terrorist executions in a way that suggested prior knowledge, if not collaboration. The photo later was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

It is still too early in this story to glean the implications of this incident. Were the cameramen innocent journalists? Collaborators who got shot accidentally? Terrorists from a rival group, executed in a turf war?

What story will the new picture from Mosul have to tell? Are Pulitzers awarded posthumously?

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