Army report: Shooting of cameraman justified

Reuters | 23 MArch 2004 | Not listed

[SkyPilot]

Journalists demand safer warzones, and safer bullets.

[SkyPilot]

Link to this story

[raloxk]

b-o-o h-o-o

[Betaille]

Since when are palestinians so sensitive to civilians being killed? Last I checked they supported it. Is it possible that they can't take themselves what they dish out to others?

[Ingtar]

Even with all these rules in place, that silhouette would likely still have drawn fire.

[TheDon]

It doesn't seem wise to point anything at the military in a war zone without first informing them of your presence and assuring them of the nature of the object you will be pointing at them, i.e. it really is a camera!

[river rat]

"Schlesinger said in a statement both Dana and Protsyuk's deaths could have been avoided."

Roger that, you can keep free lance "journalists" out of combat zones.

Embed, or run the risk of getting killed.
Bullets, once fired --- have no eraser.

Semper Fi

[Conservababe]

And who is Reuters to demand that our military heed their recommendations? If they send reporters to a war zone, they need to train them to keep their heads down.

[cyborg]

Suicide bomber in a Sbarros in Israel blowing up people eating pizza. Were their souls so touched by that????

[cyborg]

One more cup of coffee and I will make coherent posts :-) I was wondering out loud where is the outrage when Palestinian bombers walk into pizza shops and blow up people eating dinner?

[tbeatty]

"Journalist" is still one of the safest occupations although they would have you believe otherwise.

[Delta 21]

Depending on the size of the camera, viewing angle, current battlefield situational awareness, fog of war, and weather or not his last story painted me in a good light, I just may mistake him for a bad guy with a LAW or Stinger who is about to blast me....sorry dude, you should have stayed back at the al-Rashid hotel that day.

[clee1]

I buy it! Looks like a missile launcher to me.

[Bonaparte]

Why does the media have to be in these combat zones? They pretty much make up their "facts" as they go along anyway, so they may as well just stay home and write their "stories." Then they can use actors to stage their photographs. It's not like they don't already have plenty of practice.

[ApplegateRanch]

If it looks dangerous, shoot; if it shoots back shoot more until it quits moving.

What do they want, paintballs, and hope the enemy plays fair by falling over when splatted?

[fdsa2]

WTF? I agree that a filming journalist in the heat of battle could be mistaken for a soldier about to fire an AT4 but what has Palestinians got to do with it?

This could just as easily been Billy Bob from Montana?

[Radix]

Reuters said it could not agree that the death of Dana, a prize-winning Palestinian cameraman, was justified....

Funny how Reuters does not ever seem to have a problem with endless subjective negative portrayals of American troops and US policies.

Their outrageous bias in the reporting of news is not likely to win over the hearts and minds of persons who actually think that a fanatical Palestinian reporter who did an outrageously stupid act (which got himself killed) is worthy of sympathy.

It might be better that Reuters would advise it's propaganda surrogates to stay out of the way of military vehicles in hostile environments while carrying equipment which looks very much like combat gear when silhouetted. Morons!

[Enduring Freedom]

Palestinian.

Hmmm.