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Bearing Witness: War Correspondent Janine di Giovanni On
Reporting From the Battleground
Hip Hop Historian Davey D on "The Clear Channeling"
of America
Bearing Witness: War Correspondent Janine di Giovanni
On Reporting From the Battleground
"In the 1990s, a series of violent wars kept coming,
like wave after brutal wave," says di Giovanni. "I
was part of an elite, tight band of international reporters
– a tribe, really – who roamed the earth, working
from front lines or cities under siege. In those days, we
rarely wore flak jackets. But we believed in the stories we
were reporting, in the importance of bearing witnesses to
evil regimes, to ethnic cleansing, to genocide and systematic
rape. After Israel came Bosnia. After Bosnia, Rwanda. Liberia.
Congo. Chechnya. Sierra Leone. East Timor. Ivory Coast. Zimbabwe.
Somalia. Afghanistan. Iraq." With an increasing number
of controversies swirling around journalists" coverage
of war and occupation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ominously
warned that "People need to be very careful about what
they say, just as people need to be careful about what they
do."
Today we take a look at the dangers the media faces both
at home and abroad. Later in the program we will hear an address
by hip historian and journalist Davey D about the Clear Channeling
of America and the hip hop generation. But first, we go to
an interview with Janine Giovanni -- one of the most experienced
war correspondents in the world. She has worked for scores
of newspapers, TV stations and magazines. She is a Senior
Foreign correspondent for The Times of London. She also reports
for the BBC and Vanity Fair. She has written a number of books
about her experiences in war zones. She is featured in a new
film by Barbara Kopple called "Bearing Witness,"
which follows five female war correspondents. Her latest book
is called Madness Visible : A Memoir of War.
I'm going to begin by reading her words.
"In the 1990s, a series of violent wars kept coming,
like wave after brutal wave. I was part of an elite, tight
band of international reporters – a tribe, really –
who roamed the earth, working from front lines or cities under
siege. In those days, we rarely wore flak jackets.
"But we believed in the stories we were reporting, in
the importance of bearing witnesses to evil regimes, to ethnic
cleansing, to genocide and systematic rape. After Israel came
Bosnia. After Bosnia, Rwanda. Liberia. Congo. Chechnya. Sierra
Leone. East Timor. Ivory Coast. Zimbabwe. Somalia. Afghanistan.
Iraq. I know I've mercifully forgotten some.
"I had a major epiphany in Conackry, Guinea in May,
2000. I had been robbed the night before but I was still trying
to bribe my way onto the last flight to Freetown. The rebel
RUF were closing in on the capitol, and any one who could
was scrambling for the last flights out.
And I was trying to throw myself onto one of the empty helicopters
flying in to Freetown to evacuate people. What kind of person
was I, running into the fire when everyone else was diving
for cover?"
I began by asking Janine to talk about what she wrote.
- Janine di Giovanni, war correspondent and author of "Madness
Visible: A Memoir of War"
Hip Hop Historian Davey D on "The Clear Channeling"
of America
Over 2,000 people converged in St. Louis, Missouri last
weekend for the second-ever National Conference on Media Reform.
Among the keynote speakers was journalist, hip hop historian
and radio DJ, Davey D of Pacifica Radio station KPFA. He spoke
about the "Clear Channleing" of America and the
hip hop generation.
- Davey D, Hip-Hop historian, journalist, deejay and community
activist. He is also a co-founder of the Bay Area Hip Hop
Coalition and a member of the Bay Area Black Journalist
Association. He's the webmaster for what is considered one
of the oldest and largest Hip-Hop sites on the web Davey
D's Hip Hop Corner - which can be found at www.daveyd.com.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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