Roy Greenslade is right in his blog from The Guardian:
Kenji Nagai, the photographer killed in Burma holds his camera willing to continue taking pictures… of his killer.
What a dramatic lesson for any journalist!
This was Kenji Nagai, a 50-year-old photojournalist killed working for the Tokyo-based APF News who, The Guardian said, had years of experience covering danger zones.
Kenji was fatally wounded in Yangon on Thursday, and pictures smuggled out of the country showed him clutching a camera as he lay dying.
You can follow the Burma revolt in this amazing blog.
And in the videos posted on YouTube.
The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the shootings and the heavy government interference and ongoing harassment of journalists who are attempting to cover the unfolding political events in Burma.
“The protests in Burma are of international concern, and we call on the military government to allow journalists to report freely and without fear of reprisal on these major events,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “Judging by the widespread news and video clips of recent events, we fear that the junta will resort to even greater violence as the situation in Burma grows worse.”
According to the Burma Media Association (BMA) and Burmese exile-run news sources, on Wednesday afternoon at the height of the conflict the military government disconnected nearly all mobile phone services in Rangoon.
The cuts took place at 3 p.m., coinciding with the time when security forces confronted and opened fire on Buddhist monk demonstrators at Sule Pagoda in central Rangoon.
Authorities also reportedly moved to block the Internet, over which journalists have sent news, images, and videos of the protests to outside news agencies and foreign-hosted video-sharing Web sites since the unrest began on August 19.
According to BMA, in recent days police have moved to close several Internet cafes in Rangoon.
Meanwhile the main state-affiliated Internet service provider, Bagan Cybertech, has, on government orders, agreed to reduce Internet speeds, an apparent attempt to limit the ability of journalists to send out video images of the protests, according to BMA.
CPJ research has found that many Burmese journalists inside the country were able to use proxy servers and proxy sites to get around government-administered blocks on foreign-based e-mail accounts, including Gmail, which they have used to anonymously send out news to foreign and exile-run news organizations.
Several journalists were able to send out images and videos of the protests as well as footage of the government’s crackdown on demonstrators over the Internet, according to news groups who received the materials.
Burmese authorities have refused to grant reporting visas to scores of journalists who have applied in recent weeks from Thailand.
(Pictures by Reuters)
The New York Times has been publishing very sensitive front page pictures about the situation in Iraq.
Almost every day.
All of them are excellent examples of photojournalism.
And, I am sure, a nightmare for the White House.
You don’t need too many words to understand what’s going on there…
Just pictures like these.
Yesterday, several thousand sailors from the carrier Dwight Eisenhower and three smaller ships arrived in Norfolk Naval Station from an extended, nearly eight-month, deployment fighting wars and securing seas in the Middle East.
My local paper, The Virginian-Pilot, has a very emotional piece in today’s edition.
A very touching story.
With amazing photos.
This paper’s editor is a former photo editor, so the tradition of great photojournalism is alive here, as you can see in this case.
Click here to watch a slideshow.
And here to read the full story written by Louis Hansen and Kate Wiltrout.
Some moving paragraphs:
“Over the past eight months, the aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its sister ships patrolled the waters of the Middle East, sending bomb-laden planes to the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan – and a reminder to Iran of U.S. military muscle.
Wednesday, as families waited for four ships bearing more than 6,000 sailors to return, the accomplishments of the Anzio, Ramage, Mason and Eisenhower seemed irrelevant.
The day’s mission was far more personal: find, and hug, their sailor.
As is Navy tradition, the sailors who’d earned or won the right to the “first kiss” hit the pier soonest, followed by fathers of babies born during the cruise.
“It feels wonderful,” Seaman Ernie Gartung said, cradling his 8-week-old son, Ernest III, for the first time.
Gartung deployed on Valentine’s Day, in the middle of the guided missile cruiser Anzio’s tour and his wife Allison’s pregnancy.
Allison Gartung and her family drove 13 hours from Tennessee this week for the reunion.
“It’s been rough,” she said.
But the sight of her husband on a brilliant May day brightened her spirits.
The afternoon would be turned over to the new dad, she said, and “whatever he wants to do.”
Sarah Campbell had her arms full while waiting for her husband, Chief Petty Officer David Campbell.
Mom held 3-year-old Savannah on one hip and 18-month-old Dawson on the other.
Dawson’s strawberry-blond hair glowed in the sunshine.
“Daddy made me promise to keep it long so he could take him for his first haircut,” Campbell said.
The chief’s homecoming on the Mason also marked a homecoming for Sarah, Savannah and Dawson, who moved back to Virginia Beach a month ago after spending most of the deployment with family in North Carolina and Indiana.
Some spouses and parents held signs to catch their sailor’s eye.
Holly Davis had a poster made to look like a milk carton, with a picture of her husband, Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Davis, and the message, “Missing since 10/3/06. Have you seen OS1 Davis?”
Racquel Schiller, also waiting for the Anzio to arrive, toted a sign with a photo of her fiance in Wild West garb: “On the run since 10.03.06,” it read.
“Wanted for: theft of fiancee’s heart.”
Pictures by Steve Earley and Gary C. Knapp for The Virginian-Pilot.
