Fighters on Journalism's Front Lines

By Deborah HowellSunday, October 29, 2006; Page B06

The stories of three courageous female journalists, honored last week in New York and Washington, were touching, inspiring and a powerful reminder that a free and independent press is the enemy of those who want to control and intimidate.

Readers' complaints are based on the assumption that Post journalists can freely report from any dark corner that needs light and can challenge any authority that needs challenging and that editorial writers can espouse any candidate or cause. That simply isn't true in too many parts of the world. Journalists in other countries face being harassed, abducted, imprisoned, taken hostage or tortured, maimed and assassinated for doing many of those very same things.

The freedom we have in the United States is such a luxury. And we take it too much for granted. This was clear in listening to the women who received the annual Courage in Journalism Awards, sponsored by the International Women's Media Foundation, at a luncheon Tuesday. Disclosure: I am a member of the foundation's board

======= The most dangerous place on Earth for journalists right now is Iraq. Eighty-six of them have been killed there, more than the 63 dead during the long years of the Vietnam War, or the 69 who died in World War II, according to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial database. And many have been seriously wounded.
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