Two months ago, I posted an item about the death of one of the most promising young journalists in Iraq, Atwar Bahjat. Money quote from a great profile in the L.A. Times:
She was a poet, a journalist and a feminist. She had written a book tracing her adventures as a war reporter and had begun work on a second book, examining the role of women in Iraq. She didn’t fit into either side of the mounting religious clash ‚Äî her mother was Shiite, her father Sunni.
It turns out her murder was particularly brutal and disgusting. It is described here. If we have failed to protect people like Bahjat in a country where we are responsible for security, then we have failed to do our job. It’s also worth remembering Bahjat whenever we hear of a journalist’s "courage." She had courage. Most of us journalists in the West don’t know what the meaning of the word courage is.
The Dish 