Week in Review

Dangerous places

As travel in much of Iraq becomes increasingly dangerous, reporters there are forced to find inventive ways to discover what is going on. And, occasionally, we editors are being forced to reconsider some long-established practices.

There are now many parts of the country where Western reporters simply do not dare to go. Other places can be visited only in armored cars and with heavily armed escorts.

The very wealthiest news organizations are able to mount a few such expeditions, though only with careful planning and professional advice. For papers such as ours, which rely on freelance reporters or send in one reporter at a time, it is out of the question.

But some of the more enterprising journalists have not given up. Unable to travel themselves, they count on what they can learn from Iraqis who are able to move about more freely.

Correspondent Borzou Daragahi has been especially clever in finding ways to report the story at minimal risk. Unable to go to Fallujah earlier this year, he went to the bus terminal in Baghdad where the buses from Fallujah arrive and talked to the disembarking passengers.

The outcome was one of the first stories published anywhere saying extremists in that city had introduced Islamic “Shariah” law with its harsh punishments such as stoning and amputation.

Another time, Mr. Daragahi went to the terminal for cross-country truckers and conducted a chilling series of interviews with the drivers about the hazards they face on the highways.

Another freelance correspondent, Paul Martin, has set up his own news agency called World News and Features through which he markets the work of a handful of Iraqi journalists as well as his own.

It was one of these reporters who produced a story that ran on last Sunday’s front page describing the intimidation of young women in Iraq’s universities if they fail to wear the veil on their campuses.

Thousands of young women are seeking to postpone their studies because of the threats and many of them are being granted leaves of absence, the article reported.

Inside Fallujah

It was a very good story, and a coup for any reporter to have a front-page article in a Washington newspaper. But it ran without a byline at the request of the reporter, who feared he could be in jeopardy just for writing the story.

Instead, we carried a simple credit line at the top of the story saying “The Washington Times.” Mr. Martin, who heavily edited the story, was credited through a tag at the bottom of the article recognizing his agency, World News and Features.

We wound up scratching our heads when a private organization called us a few days later seeking permission to reproduce the article. Unsure who held the rights to the story, we referred the caller to Mr. Martin.

We have to be even more careful in explaining the sources for the latest offering from Mr. Daragahi, who has written about the mood of impending confrontation in Fallujah.

The story was datelined from Abu Ghraib, just outside of Fallujah, but the article contained a detailed description of a noontime gathering at Fallujah City Hall, where city leaders declared they would not resume negotiations with the interim government in Baghdad unless U.S. forces halted their daily airstrikes on the city.

The story also had direct quotes from Hareth al-Dari, the leader of a hard-line clerical group in Fallujah known as the Muslim Scholars Association.

I believe it is safe to say that this material was conveyed to Mr. Daragahi by Iraqis who could be trusted to accurately report what they heard. I can also say that Mr. Daragahi would not at this point ask anyone to travel to Fallujah on his behalf.

Nevertheless, he found a way to get the story, and our readers are better informed as a result.

• David W. Jones is the foreign editor of The Washington Times. His e-mail address is djones@washingtontimes.com.