Freelance video journalist Takeharu Watai says the brutal deaths of two Japanese reporters near Baghdad in late May will not deter him from returning to Iraq, where he spent most of last year covering the war. "Just because people were killed doesn't mean we stop covering," Watai said by phone. "It's a matter of how we get prepared. Because I feel more scared now, I'd ponder how I should cover events there, though. But it's not like we will withdraw from Iraq or we won't head for a site (where news is breaking)." Since April, five Japanese freelance journalists have been abducted or killed in Iraq, where they were covering the reconstruction efforts of Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) located in Samawah. As it often happens, the journalists fell vulnerable to attack while traveling to their next destination, Watai said. The 32-year-old freelance journalist with Asia Press International spent six months over the past year and a half in Iraq, where he reported under fire in Baghdad for Japanese news programs such as "News Station" (TV Asahi) and "News 23" (TBS). Watai left Iraq in April and is not sure when he will visit Iraq next time. Watai thinks the Iraqi people's positive opinion of Japan is in decline. He knew the two men, Shinsuke Hashida and Kotaro Ogawa, who were killed while traveling by road last month, and was especially disturbed by how Ogawa was allegedly chased out of the car and shot. "This incident clearly reveals that the gunmen had a strong will to kill foreigners or Japanese," Watai said. "We've seen Japanese people attacked or captured so far in Iraq, but this type of incident has never happened. I am frightened by how much more brutal they have become." The attack was "regrettable," said Jiro Kawasaki, the chief deputy chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Diet Affairs Committee, according to media reports. The government gave repeated warnings that the media should think about the safety of reporters and withdraw from Iraq, Kawasaki added. The government gave another warning after three journalists were among the Japanese hostages taken in April and later released. Upon their return, the hostages were criticized for causing problems for the government and the Japanese troops in Iraq. After the crisis, two of the former captive journalists accused the media of parroting the government and placing most of the blame on the hostages themselves. Originally from Osaka, Watai graduated from Nihon University in Tokyo, majoring in broadcasting at the Department of Art. He started his career as a photojournalist in 1997, and a year later began reporting with a small video camera. After Sept. 11, Watai reported from Afghanistan for three months. He has also reported from Sri Lanka, Sudan and East Timor. As well as writing articles and taking photos for Japanese publications, he has maintained a personal Web site in Japanese for two years. There he publishes blog-style reports and opinions, especially about journalism, along with photos he has taken while abroad. This year, Watai's coverage of Iraq earned him a Galaxy Award from the Japan Council for Better Radio and Television and a special version of the Vaughan-Ueda Memorial Prize for freelance broadcast journalists. Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori interviewed Watai while in Tokyo, and later, by phone. This is an edited version of the transcript.
Japan Media Review: We learned that at first the Defense Agency requested that the media refrain from reporting news on the Self-Defense Forces. And newspapers and television stations followed the restriction.
Takeharu Watai: They haven't really followed it, have they? After the request for restricting reports, there had been discussion going on (between the agency and the media organizations).
JMR: And they reached an agreement in March.
Watai: Yes, but not exactly an agreement, more like a compromise. The Cabinet didn't like it that information about members of the Self-Defense Forces would be reported. So, they requested the self-restriction. But the lowest rank of SDF members were friendly and willing to talk, to my surprise. They rather wished to be reported. They wanted Japanese to know their activities in Iraq, or they wanted to tell (their personal messages) to their families in Japan. In that sense, the request (for the self-restriction on media) did not penetrate to the lowest-ranked members of the SDF.
JMR: We couldn't find those kinds of stories, because the media didn't cover them.
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"Iraqi people trust Japanese very much and respect us. Honestly, they really like us." |
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Watai: Even if it was called "request for restriction," it wasn't forced or regulated on the media. It was rather that the media hesitated to cover the dispatch of the SDF. There is a press club in Samawah, another one in the Defense Agency, and also one more in the prime minister's official residence. The pressure from those places was the source (of the request). In other words, if there was trouble between the media and the SDF in Samawah, it would make it difficult for newspaper reporters belonging to the press clubs, either in the Defense Agency or the prime minister's residence, to report news. Or the media companies didn't want to have any trouble.
JMR: So the restriction didn't affect someone like you who works as a freelancer?
Watai: The Defense Agency doesn't know Asia Press International, the office to which I belong, nor my name. For them, NHK or Asahi Shimbun or Yomiuri Shimbun are the most important, and they mind what is reported there. So, whatever we (freelance journalists) criticize, they simply ignore.
JMR: But doesn't it work as an advantage -- reporting and writing what you want?
Watai: Well, reporting and writing what you want is not what I believe freelance journalists should do. That's what mass media should do. Also, I'm not willing to do the work in place of mass media. I was covering the Self-Defense Forces in Samawah for two weeks from the end of March to the beginning of April, but I hesitated to do that. Just because I am a freelance journalist doesn't mean I could go into the place where the SDF were stationed and ask around freely. Basically, there was a press conference, and you'd attend and hear stories from the SDF members there. So it doesn't mean we could do anything because we are freelancers.
JMR: You said you are not willing to do work in place of the mass media. Then what do you think freelance journalists should do?
Watai: As a freelancer, (I want to) report not on the SDF, but what is going on in Iraq. I don't go there to cover the Japanese there -- the SDF is just a part of Iraq. Of course, I'm Japanese, so I was interested in the SDF's activities, but generally, that's not my priority. I wanted to cover the situation of the Defense Forces, if the mass media wouldn't tell it.
JMR: Freelance journalists like you send coverage to TV stations or magazines. If you report anything related to the SDF, will the mass media filter the report?
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