TOPLINE A relative of a journalist working for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle has been killed as the Taliban is carrying out “door-to-door” manhunts in an effort to round up journalists and people who worked for the previous Afghan government or Western forces, a U.N. threat assessment has warned, escalating fears of reprisals despite the group vowing <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/17/transcript-of-talibans-first-press-conference-in-kabul" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">amnesty</a> for Afghans working for the previous government and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/taliban-seek-no-revenge-and-all-afghans-will-be-forgiven" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">independence</a> for journalists.   



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The Taliban “shot dead” and seriously injured two family members of a journalist working for DW in a door-to-door manhunt, the German broadcaster&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/relative-of-dw-journalist-killed-by-the-taliban/a-58912975" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Thursday night.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Taliban has raided the homes of at least three journalists with the broadcaster and is likely involved in the kidnapping and shooting of other journalists in Afghanistan, DW said in a statement.



DW’s director general Peter Limbourg said “it is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organized searches for journalists” in Kabul and other provinces and urged, alongside other media organizations,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/dw-urges-german-government-to-help-afghan-staff/a-58890960" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">governments</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-seeks-un-security-council-meeting-plight-journalists-afghanistan" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">international</a>&nbsp;organizations to take swift action to ensure the safety of journalists in Afghanistan.&nbsp;



It comes as the Taliban is intensifying efforts to round up Afghan “collaborators” with suspected ties to the previous government and Western forces,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/taliban-hunting-down-afghans-on-blacklist-report/a-58914571" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to a confidential U.N. intelligence report written by the RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses and seen by news outlets.



Christian Nellemann, who leads the group,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/20/taliban-un-report-afghanistan-door-to-door-revenge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;AFP the Taliban is “targeting the families of those who refuse to give themselves up,” prosecuting and punishing them instead in apparent accordance with Sharia law.



“We expect both individuals previously working with NATO and U.S. forces and their allies, alongside with their family members to be exposed to torture and executions,” Nellemann said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The Taliban swiftly retook Kabul and much of Afghanistan after the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/04/13/biden-plans-to-pull-all-troops-from-afghanistan-by-911/?sh=68b8a9492f51">withdrawal</a>&nbsp;of U.S. forces, sparking an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210816-western-powers-scramble-to-evacuate-from-afghanistan" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">exodus</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-rescue-staff-taliban-afghanistan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diplomatic</a>&nbsp;staff, foreign nationals and some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/16/taliban-says-afghanistan-war-over-as-president-diplomats-flee" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">local Afghan staff</a>. Thousands of Afghans have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/08/16/us-forces-resort-to-aerial-firing-as-chaos-unfolds-at-kabul-airport/?sh=5a8fa52565d0">crowded</a>&nbsp;Kabul airport in the aftermath of the takeover in an attempt to flee and the State Department&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/08/18/us-says-it-cannot-ensure-safe-passage-to-kabuls-airport-despite-taliban-pledge/?sh=4d7f64ea72b7">said</a>&nbsp;it could not guarantee Americans could reach the airport safely. NATO&nbsp;<a href="https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-taliban-urge-people-to-leave-kabul-airport-after-12-people-killed-there-since-sunday-12384959" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">officials</a>&nbsp;said at least 12 have died in and around the airport since Sunday. The Taliban—which brutally ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and harshly restricted rights for women and many other groups—said it would respect women’s rights “within the limits of Islam.” As with vows of amnesty, there are already reports of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-women-bankers-forced-roles-taliban-takes-control-2021-08-13/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rollbacks to women’s rights</a>&nbsp;in some cities.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/08/17/who-runs-the-taliban-these-are-some-of-the-groups-top-leaders/?sh=5974d2a81a14">Who Runs The Taliban? These Are Some Of The Group’s Top Leaders.</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/graisondangor/2021/08/18/taliban-is-letting-un-work-continue-so-far-officials-say/?sh=23bc7aab62a5">Taliban Is Letting U.N. Work Continue So Far, Officials Say</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/taliban-hunting-down-afghans-on-blacklist-report/a-58914571" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taliban hunting down Afghans on blacklist — report</a>&nbsp;(DW)



<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58271797" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to-door manhunt, report says</a> (BBC)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

AFGHANISTAN-CONFLICT

Taliban Kill Journalist’s Relative In Intensifying ‘Door-To-Door’ Hunt For Media And ‘Collaborators’ With Previous Afghan Government Or U.S., NATO Forces

When everyone else is running away from danger, war reporters hurl their cameras and microphones in the opposite direction to ‘get the story’. Paula Slier, the writer of this piece, is one of them. 



War reporting is more a calling than a profession. Why else
would an otherwise sane adult throw himself or herself in harm’s way? When
everyone else is running away from danger, these men and women are hurling
their cameras and microphones in the opposite direction to ‘get the story’.&nbsp; 



This year alone, 19 journalists have been killed in the
field. It begs the question if the job is worth the risk? Especially in the age
of Twitter, virtual reality and 360 cameras, can – and will – technology
replace human coverage on the battlefield? 



Wars today make no distinction between combatants and
journalists. Long gone are the days that the reporter was perceived as a
‘neutral observer’. Today, increasingly, the media is seen as a
legitimate-target in the so-called ‘information war’ that can be as important –
if not more – in the fight for public perception, than the battle itself. 



During the bloodiest days of the not-so-long-ago
Russia-Ukraine conflict, I reported from the frontlines alongside pro-Russia
fighters. 



I wore a bullet-proof jacket with the word ‘PRESS’ emblazoned
across it. Instead of offering me some degree of protection as one would
expect, the soldiers asked me to remove the jacket as they believed the
Ukrainian military would deliberately target me because I was a journalist. I
was thus making it unsafe for them too. 



Award-winning Italian war reporter, Fausto Biloslavo, has
covered most of the conflicts of the last 35 years. He believes this shift in
how journalists are viewed came about after ‘September 11’. 



“Insurgents no longer considered us witnesses to be
respected but cannon fodder for propaganda or ransom. Nowadays, in any war,
they always think that you are a spy and not a real journalist,” he says.



It doesn’t help that wars themselves have become more
difficult to cover. The rise of non-state actors like paramilitary and terror
groups means that, for years, swathes of Syria and Iraq were off-limits to
reporters. 



The only way a journalist could reach there was by being
‘embedded’ – attached – to an army unit. No wonder then that we are seen by some
groups as unobjective and pushing a particular view. It is very hard to travel
with the Kurdish army, like I did in northern Iraq, and be perceived by those
fighting the Kurds as neutral.



Amitabh Revi, associate editor of Strategic News
International, a niche Indian online news service, has had his fair share of
warzones. He believes that some wars are simply too dangerous to cover.



“It’s always a calculated risk. When I ask myself why I do
it, it’s to be the eyes and ears for those who can’t be there and frankly, just
to be there myself. Social media and citizen reporting are important, but for
sustained, comprehensive coverage, one still needs a professional.”



Small-sized digital equipment has seen the rise of the
so-called ‘accidental journalist’. These often young, unqualified reporters
venture into danger zones and take risks that their more seasoned colleagues
never would. The trend became so prevalent that major news organizations took
the unprecedented step of announcing they would not buy footage from
freelancers reporting in areas they deemed too dangerous to send their own
staff reporters to. 



Biloslavo has lost five close friends to conflict. 



The first was Almerigo Grilz, a kind of older brother to
him. He was killed on May 19, 1987, in Mozambique. filming a battle between
Renamo rebels and Frelimo government troops. Grilz made the mistake to move
slightly from behind the protection of a termite mound to film the rebel
retreat and was likely shot in the neck by a sniper.



“Almost always a journalist dies because he has made a mistake, small or big, conscious or not, as he travels along a dangerous road, photographing a tank around a corner or trusting the local population too much,” believes Biloslavo. And all the training in the world cannot prepare one for that moment. Often it’s instinct that kicks in at the last moment, especially when one must make that critical decision to move forward, stay put, or pull back.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Fausto-Biloslavo-672x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42522" width="464" height="706"/></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;No article is worth the price of life, but someone has to go and report about wars, the dark side of humanity. <cite>&#8211; Fausto Biloslavo </cite></blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-1024x576.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42521" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;It&#8217;s to be the eyes and ears for those who can&#8217;t be there and frankly, just to be there myself. <cite>&#8211; Amitabh Revi </cite></blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



But despite all the risks, Biloslavo has no intention of laying down his microphone for good.



“I’ll only stop taking risks when I can no longer bear the
weight of the bullet-proof jacket, the helmet, the backpack and am unable to
run halfway through the whistle of the bullets,” he says. 



“No article is worth the price of life, but someone has to
go and report about wars, the dark side of humanity. This means accepting the
risks of being killed, injured or kidnapped.”



For Revi, he’ll only stop reporting when wars stop, which
implies never. 



“The most dangerous situation I was in was during a
so-called ‘double tap’ attack in Afghanistan,” he reflects. “The idea (of the
perpetrators) is to kill the first responders – medical, security forces and
journalists who rush to an attack. Instinct kept me away from the second of the
two blasts. So, in short, one needs loads of luck.” 



But what happens when that luck runs out? Sometimes, war
reporting can feel like a ticking bomb. I narrowly missed a suicide bombing at
the entrance to my hotel in Afghanistan. For three weeks, I had met the crew at
the same spot every day at 9AM. On the day of the explosion, we had an early
interview and left some 15 minutes before the bomb detonated – at the entrance,
exactly at 9AM.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



A mixture of faith and fate keeps me going. Faith in the importance of what I’m doing – writing the first draft of history – and fate that when my time comes, it’ll come, but not a second before.



As the US author, Horace Greeley, wrote: “Journalism may kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.”



&#8211; Paula Slier

Fausto Biloslavo

Braving Bullets And Death To Write The First Draft Of History

A few months ago, I suddenly found myself dropping to the ground and crouching in long grass with bullets whirring overhead. Minutes earlier, I’d been following a group of pro-Russian fighters conducting a sweep of an area in eastern Ukraine to make sure it was ‘clean’ of the Ukrainian military. For a few frozen moments, my world stood still.
Everything was deathly quiet aside from the frighteningly close cracking of gunfire. Somewhere in the distance a dog was barking and the commander was shouting&#8230; Yes, I was afraid.
Last May, I was sitting in a hotel room, warm water lazily filling a bath tub nearby. I switched on my phone and instantly paled. I was just as afraid.
“Scum of the earth”, “f*** her”, “take a knife and pull out all her Russian shit”.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-31873" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/facebook-profile-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/facebook-profile-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/facebook-profile-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/facebook-profile-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/facebook-profile.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
My Twitter feed had gone into overdrive and as I scrolled down each message, the abuse intensified.
I was on assignment in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, reporting for the Moscow-based broadcaster, Russia Today. The two countries were at war with each other and a local activist had picked up on my location and started a manhunt – “not just to catch her but to kill her”.
Within hours, I was on a plane out of the country. I arrived at the airport with dark glasses and a scarf. If I hadn’t been so afraid, it might have been funny.
Ukraine is currently the third most dangerous country for journalists to work in. The online harassment I faced, and continue to face, is not unique to Ukraine though, or for that matter, to journalists in general.
But what the threats uniquely focus on is my gender – the fact that I’m a woman – and the explicit threats are of extreme violence to rape and assault me. Most of my so-called online detractors focus their criticism less on my work and more on me.
My experience echoes the stories of other female journalists, writers and bloggers. A staggering 72.5% of online harassment is targeted at women, according to the Organisation for Safety and Co-operation in Europe.
The issue is of such concern that a special panel has been set up to address it. Trolling has become a favorite past-time for people buoyed by the anonymity and safety the online world offers. It is easy to sit in your home and spurt threats at anyone with views you don’t like. Legislation is far from water-tight in preventing it and what gives these words so much power is the incitement they can evoke and the very real possibility for them to be carried out in the real world.
I was in a taxi, lost, in an outlying suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. The driver had been circling the same neighborhoods for more than an hour and it was starting to get dark and I was getting concerned.
In such a situation, GPS tracking is a godsend – not just for finding one’s way but for alerting one’s editors to a possible abduction attempt. Today, journalists are seen as legitimate targets – no longer do we merely cover the story; in many instances we’ve become the story – whether online or in the real world.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-31871" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Ilovaysk10-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ilovaysk10-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ilovaysk10-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ilovaysk10-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ilovaysk10.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
The number one fear we all share is that of being kidnapped. Paradoxically though, while switching on my cellphone’s GPS that day in Beirut and increasing my security, I also decreased it by alerting online detractors as to where I was.
The risks are greater when you’re a woman in the field than a man. In many parts of the world, women journalists are a strange persona for those with preconceived ideas of where a woman’s place should be.
Once, during an embed (term for a journalist attached to a military unit in conflict areas) with American soldiers in the Afghan province of Zabul, a group of children came running after us, laughing and joking. I was weighed down by a bulletproof jacket, helmet and backpack, but through the military sunglasses that kept slipping down my nose I could see the children pointing at my red-painted finger nails.
When we eventually took a breather and I removed my helmet, one of the more courageous boys plucked up the courage to step forward and ask: “Ma’am, do your parents know you’re here?”
All voices need to be heard, whether male or female, whether for or against the views one holds. Courage lies not only in speaking out for what one believes in, but for making sure the views of those we disagree with are given a platform.
– The writer is South African and the Middle East bureau chief of Russia Today. She was reporting for the channel in Kiev when a manhunt started against her and she had to exit.

Tag: Journalists

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Taliban Kill Journalist’s Relative In Intensifying ‘Door-To-Door’ Hunt For Media And ‘Collaborators’ With Previous Afghan Government Or U.S., NATO Forces

Braving Bullets And Death To Write The First Draft Of History

‘Catch Her… Kill Her’