{"id":28317,"date":"2013-05-09T17:46:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T13:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=28317"},"modified":"2013-05-10T08:29:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T04:29:32","slug":"safe-to-speak-for-journalists-in-the-middle-east-not-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-business\/middle-east-media-analysis\/safe-to-speak-for-journalists-in-the-middle-east-not-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Safe to Speak’ For Journalists in the Middle East? Not Yet."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"press<\/a><\/p>\n

The UN General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day in 1993. I marked its 20th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary this year as every year \u2013 recalling that 17 years earlier I was pining for such a marker after my soulmate and colleague was assassinated on 16 January 1976 during the Lebanon Civil War.<\/p>\n

On May 6, Lebanon also marked its Press Martyrs’ Day.<\/p>\n

The campaign against the Lebanese press throughout the civil war \u2013 the Internet didn\u2019t exist \u2013 was relentless and cruel.<\/p>\n

For emphasis, the cutting of victims\u2019 fingers or hands often marked the killings. These were mostly executed by none other than the Syrian regime of Assad the father, whose son now carries on with the \u201ccraft\u201d of killing journalists!<\/p>\n

The gagging and atrocities against the media are something I lived with first hand. The fear was always there.<\/p>\n

This is why, at Mich Caf\u00e9, I write about journalists, citizen journalists, bloggers and prisoners of conscience gone missing, jailed, tortured, raped and killed in Syria today.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media?\u201d\u00a0is this year\u2019s WPFD theme.<\/p>\n

Not a chance!<\/p>\n

The assassination in 1976 of Najib Azzam, who I thought I would spend the rest of my life with, was alas not the only one to affect me deeply.<\/p>\n

Krikor Ohannes, who I worked closely with for 15 years at Monday Morning<\/i> magazine, was another.<\/p>\n

He was killed in 1986. Koko was our photographer and we went everywhere together, including to Amman for the wedding of Jordan\u2019s King Hussein<\/a> to Queen Noor in June 1978.<\/p>\n

Most recently, and again at the hands of the Syrian regime, we lost Marie Colvin. We used to meet often on assignments in Tunisia and at various conferences. On our last meeting, we cooked spaghetti together. It remains one of the best.<\/p>\n

On my friend\u2019s blog, ArabSaga<\/a>\u00a0he wrote a six-part series last year on \u201cThe cost of gagging Beirut\u201d:<\/p>\n