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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/18/christianerwanda.jpg caption="Christiane Amanpour standing in a graveyard in Rwanda for her documentary 'Scream Bloody Murder'"]
By Vladimir Duthiers; Production Assistant, AMANPOUR.
On November 25, the Committee to Protect Journalist honored five journalists with its 2009 International Press Freedom Awards in a ceremony highlighting the plight of journalists in danger zones such as Somalia, China, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and most recently, the Philippines, where thirty journalists were killed in the province of Maguindanao. Christiane, who sits on the CPJ board, hosted the event at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
Among the awardees of the CPJ’s 2009 International Press Freedom Awards was Eynulla Fatullayev, founder and editor-in-chief of Realny Azerbaijan, J.S. Tissainayagam, editor of the news web site OutreachSL and a columnist for the English-language Sri Lankan Sunday Times, Mustafa Haji Abdinur, Somalia correspondent for Agence France-Presse and editor-in-chief of the independent radio station Radio Simba, and Naziha Réjiba, editor of the Tunisia based independent online news journal Kalima. The CPJ also presented the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award to the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist, Anthony Lewis. The award is given in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished achievement in the cause of press freedom
For me, the sight of Miss Réjiba at the podium was especially moving and served as a personal source of inspiration around the issue of the Internet’s emerging role in press freedom and those that seek to suppress it. While attempting to report on recent elections in her home country of Tunisia, Réjiba said she faced “a relentless and vicious campaign” waged by her government. She added, reporters’ movements “have been restricted; others have been beaten, abducted, subjected to politicized trials, imprisoned, or placed under constant surveillance.”
While I was listening to her speech, I was reminded of a story that I had often heard repeated by my relatives.
Family legend has it that my paternal grandmother was raised by my great-grandfather to have a tough, “take-no-prisoners” attitude when it came to living by rules imposed by the powers that be. In pre-World War II France, the powers that be were men. French men, just so you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about. Highly educated and fiercely independent, my grandmother spent several years in Paris as a journalist, writing about the right of all French women to participate in the values of the republic - Liberté, égalité, fraternité - embodied no less, by France’s national emblem, Marianne. My grandmother’s articles challenged the government to give women the right to vote, which ultimately, did not happen in France until after the war in 1945.
My grandmother Jeanne, never lived to see the fruits of her efforts. She died delivering my father in June of 1944. Her sister-in-law was already an old woman by the time I came into the world in 1969, but like the old griots of West Africa, she would regale me with stories of Jeanne’s exploits, including the reason, she believed, for her sudden, unexpected death. The gendarmerie was angered by her call to action in local underground newspapers not deemed to have journalistic merit by the government. She was not writing in Le Temps – the pre-cursor to Le Monde, The New York Times of France. No, my grandmother wrote for small, sometimes self-published, fly-by-night newspapers funded usually in secret, by like-minded citizens of all genders She was essentially, a proto-blogger and her defiance in the face of efforts to muzzle her and her like-minded compatriots resulted in her being jailed several times and occasionally, beaten while in prison.
So the story goes.
I say “story” because I’ve never been able to verify these tales. As a child, I took them as gospel. My grandmother’s exploits fueled my desire to read books on every subject no matter how disparate, as I dreamed of also becoming a crusading journalist, fighting to expose truths obscured by shadows of injustice while enlightening a society when their institutions failed to educate them. It didn’t hurt that my other boyhood idol, Superman, moonlighted as a journalist by day. There was never any doubt in my mind that what my grandmother did was journalism – even if the French government decided that what she was doing was inciting rebellion.
Yet what was Thomas Paine advocating when he wrote about the absurdity of an island ruling a continent? In his revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense, he said, “In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.” This almost certainly did not go over well in Windsor Castle. In 1850, Frederick Douglass, called for insurrection against laws that that did not measure up to America’s creed that held that all men are created equal. In his newspaper, the North Star, Douglass wrote, “Slaveholders of the South, with equal assiduity have been active in originating schemes, with a view to stay the progress of these opinions and principles, and in fortifying the system of slavery against attack, by trampling upon the right of petition, by suppressing free discussion, by fettering the American press, by gagging the American pulpit, and by enlarging their borders - the judgment-day of slavery is dawning.”
The American journalist, and social reformer William Lloyd Garrison’s call to action was as incendiary as they come. In his first piece for the weekly Liberator, which he founded in 1831, he said, "I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation… I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD."
Fast forward to the present and in many countries around the world, those trying to be heard are instead, being silenced. In a blog post former CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa and current VP for News and Current Affairs at the Philippines based ABS-CBN, describes a citizen journalist, known only as “patroller”, who risked his life on three separate occasions to show the world what was happening in an area where professional journalists would not go until more than twelve hours after the massacre of their colleagues.
“Patroller”, along with the honorees of the CPJ and yes, my legendary grandmother, Jeanne Caillet, form the first line of defense in the face of tyranny and injustice. My grandmother died surrounded by loved ones, not in a ditch by the side of a road. But Maguindanao is only the most recent example and unfortunately, will not be the last. Witness the suppression of the citizen press in Iran recently. But, like William Lloyd Garrison, they will be heard.
I lived in Europe for over ten years, six of them in Paris. Many times, I found myself standing in front of the National Archives, intent on tracking down grandmother Jeanne, finding the name of her newspaper, an arrest record, anything that would make the myth real. I never did walk in.
While I believe in the truth, I love fairy tales.
For a discussion about the future of journalism, join Christiane and powerhouse media couple Sir Harold Evans and Tina Brown. It’s their first joint interview ever. See it on AMANPOUR. Friday December 18, 2009 at 20:00 GMT.
To see profiles of the journalists honored at the Committee to Protect Journalist, please click on their names below:
@camanpour on Twitter
Vladimir Duthiers:
In an age of so much entertainment / pseudo-journalism, it is encouraging to see that there are still pockets of journalistic excellence like the kinds you so movingly write about above.
I WILL BE HEARD – what a magnificent slogan for journalism, would be great for CNN to start a dedicated microsite with that name!
Autocratic institutions had and will continue to suppress the media unless they “toe by their line”. Thus more responsible the media more it is likely to get and feel threatened.
It is up to the courageous journalists and their equally important supporting staff to fight for freedom of press to seek the truth especially under non-democratic and hostile environments.
Sayan.
I just saw your story on the future of journalism and I have to say that I used to be a Reper Murdoch hater. Having extensive knowledge of media ownership, FCC, and advertising. I had the opportunity to work for the media as an assignment editor/producer assistant at Univision, NBC, MSNBC and 1010 Wins. I will say from personal experience that being in the newsroom when 9/11 happened things changed in a blink of an eye, and yes the media sold out and fail to connect the dots and do their job in the running up to the Iraq war, but this is not new, it has been happening for a long time I read Ted Turners book. And while many people beleive that citizen journalism is the future I disagree. Many websites are full as biases just like the so call "main stream media is" Without a formal education on history and knowledge media and how it works I find it difficult to beleive that bloggers can make the wheels turn, they can creat buzz and sales but that is not = to insure that real changes at the legislative level will happen. I am a firm beleiver of working with different media outlets as well as party lines to insure that THE JOB gets done. And trust me I know when I am watching propaganda and when I am watching news.
I've always admired your work, and dedication, Christiane.
Thank you for your achievements, your inspiration, and your insights.
You, and your colleagues, help make my world a bit more tolerable, and certainly, a lot more interesting.
I am very happy to watch CNN TV with Amanpour processing interviews with people.
May I have the time-table of your program Mss. Amanpour to pursue your invaluable knowledge.
I wish to you success and prosperity.
I am from Bahrain, Persian Gulf
You can find the timetable on our front page: http://cnn.com/amanpour. Scroll toward the bottom!
Thank you very much for your reply.
I look forward to receiving any booklet,magazine, periodical from CNN.
Personally I think there are two nationally known high caliber investigative Journalists on the air today. one is Bill Moyer on PBS. The other is Christine Amanpour.
Women all ove the planet who are pointing out the lies, hypocracy and fallacies of corrupt regiemes are in danger of losing their lives. This group includes reporters, environmental activists, social justice activiists, and women who are breaking tradition by doing or not douing something in a culture. The retrubition in many illeterate cultures is death to the woman. (think honor killings which is not just a muslum "tradition")
What a fabulous reminder that threats to journalists and those who strive to expose the truth is not a new phenomenon. And bravo to those who try to protect these crusaders. Well done!
All brave people who say, after finding truth are to be acknowledged and rewarded. the irony is that inspite of freedom of press, and modern day journalism the risk to life has increased many fold. but always there will be brave people who will bring the truth to people. We in Pakistan also face many hurdles and embrace risks of all kinds.Now this war inside and the journalists and truth finders are a target.A courageous girl Beena Sarwar who makes documentaries on women and violence was recently threatened with death. She faces courageously all threats and fights on.
Only a few western journalists do what Christiane and others have done in the past. Reporting from Bosnia while dodging bullets and solders with a license to kill.
It's understandable that local journalists in Somalia, China, Sri Lanka, Philippines and in other places pay hefty price for speaking out the facts – Because authorities there have many ways to stop the journalists.
But I really admire reporters like Michael Ware who volunteer to take risks by uncovering untold wars from Mexico to Afghanistan to Iraq.
It's so fitting to honor people in the field of journalism who made such impact that people around the world should know that despite of the changing landscape of news reporting, there remains the quality of a good news report and the integrity of journalists who would do everything to provide us the TRUTH.
I think it is interesting to note that the only industry mention in the Constitution is the press. not shipbuilding, not agriculture, certainly not business. Just the press
I feel very strongly that the recent killing scenes in Maguindanao, Philippines, more than ever allows us no room for easy comprehension how we seem to trivialize by allowing governments like the Philippines and Iran get away with it so easy.
I am yet a very young person, but school did to me the ability to find for means genuinely understand why journalism is often the target, and why they themselves are often the vehicle to obfuscate crucial features of say of an issue like the Maguindanao massacre. It is a well known feature in the Philippines and Iran that they have systemic malfunction in affairs running government because they are virtual dictatorships that certainly allow murder to remain in power.
Journalists should aim to focus more on why the United Nations cannot make their mark allow for sanity back by reinstituting workable sanctions, if in Iran UN limit their ire on just the nuclear issues, how about students like me exposed to dangers of governments in killing spree like in Iran?
And why wouldn't UN stump their feet make the Philippines allow for more UN participation in the investigations how killings as gory and grizzly as the Maguindanao incident escape attention Filipino government doled money and guns to serial murderers to perpetuate themselves in power?
How about American taxpayers not informed of military aid and American arsenals uncovered buried in Maguindanao supplied to this killers of journalists and other innocent people all 57 and counting, isn't this an act of war crime that the UN should take responsibility for?
Now I know why American leaders bypassed the UN in attacking Iraq, this is very dangerous situation since it seems we could be losing ourselves in grave anger simply because UN as guardian could no longer function accordingly.
Madz Saga
Student
I am genuinely admired work of Amanpour.
I would llike to request Ch. Amanapour to make interview with Shia who perform Ashoora " Ya Hussain" to let the listeners of CNN recognize the history of Immam Hussain and myrterdom. Why Immam was killed in the year of 680 and his case is still alive.
Immam Hussain urprising is not only for Muslim and in particular Shia sect but all the agrieved people.
This is my opinion.
I really admire you Christian Amanpour, you have really inspired me in many different ways and because of you i have acquired courage that i never imagined that i could have.........Thank you very much.
Journalists certainly have their hands in the shaping of politics, art, and society. It is certainly no easy profession and for those who choose to live it, I commend you.
I would like to recommend an interview series of professional women in online journalism, yet another facet of the world of journalism.
The interviews were conducted by future journalists, from the University of Iowa's Gender and Mass Media class this past fall. http://www.ourblook.com/Table/Gender-and-Mass-Media/
I encourage other women journalists to leave remarks and comments about anything they feel should be prevalent in the article that accompanies the interviews.
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