Last week I got a surprising email from a close friend and fellow journalist–someone by the name of Christian Poveda had been murdered in El Salvador. My friend knew Mr. Poveda years back while reporting on the conflicts in the 80’s in El Salvador and Nicaragua. In more recent years, Poveda had been doing controversial and dangerous reporting on notorious gangs in El Salvador for a documentary called “La Vida Loca” . I also vaguely knew Poveda, having followed his progress with the documentary, as his friend on Facebook, and had sent him a Facebook message or two in the past year. The news about Poveda was shocking, especially because I had admired him so much for his bravery in tackling such dangerous work and living to tell about it.

My first thought was to tell, in some small way, about Poveda’s work and what he had given his life for. So I wrote about him in my blog. But I had to create a new category: Journalists Killed. It was a sickening sight to see the new category in black and white, but it made me think about things more deeply.

It isn’t that Poveda’s murder was the first time I had heard of a journalist being murdered while working. It just happened to be the first time it hit so close to home. One day someone is posting updates on Facebook about their documentary, the next they are a victim of a silent war against journalists who dare to tread in dangerous territory to tell important stories.

During an interview with Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for the Americas for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), about Poveda’s murder, he reminded me that most murdered journalists also suffer the fate of their killer not being brought to justice.

“Impunity is the norm in most cases of journalist assassinations around the world according to our research,” said Mr. Lauría of the CPJ during my interview with him for a  story I wrote about Poveda’s death that was published in The Epoch Times. “There are many factors—overburdened justice systems, widespread corruption, no resources for investigations.”

Almost two weeks later, thoughts of Poveda and his unjust death still linger in my mind. He was shot in the head. Will his murder ever be solved? What about the journalists who were left behind in El Salvador? As CPJ’s Lauría told me, Poveda’s murder “sends a chilling message to Salvadoran journalists.”

It begs the question–what about the stories still to be told? The murder of the journalists going after the truly dangerous stories brings two kinds of death. One is their lives, the second is the eerie warning to all those who might come after to report.

In some countries, there has literally been a string of journalists murdered. Russia is a chilling example. The CPJ’s recent special report on Russia is called Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia. A video report of the background of these murders–17 murders in the past 9 years, only 1 of which has been solved–includes an interview with CPJ’s Nina Ognianova and Muzaffar Suleymanov as they discuss impunity in the murders of Russian journalists.

Anatomy of Injustice: Video Report

There should be protection for journalists who go about their jobs reporting the news and getting the stories for the public. There should be harsh punishment awaiting those who dare to murder journalists. And there should be no category on a blog or a website discussing the phenomena of journalists being murdered and their murders not being solved.

Christopher Dickey is an award-winning author and Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek Magazine. His most recent book, Securing the City, was published in February 2009. Mr. Dickey’s Shadowland column, about counter-terrorism, espionage and the Middle East, appears weekly on Newsweek Online. His newest book is a rare inside look at the NYPD’s elite counter-terrorism force that took shape after 9/11 and has been keeping New York safe ever since.

I talked with Mr. Dickey from his home in Paris about his book earlier this year.

What inspired you to write “Securing the City”?

“I spent a lot of time covering Iran and the Iraq war. I was interested in covering terrorism from a different perspective. As I looked around I found that the NYPD (New York Police Department) was unusual. The caliber of intelligence, counter-intelligence and law enforcement looked to be unusual. I wanted to look at a different paradigm in fighting terrorism. NYPD Intel Chief David Cohen told me that there’s a plot out there every day to attack New York City—this led to the inspiration for the book. New York City is the most target-rich environment for terrorists.”

You were given unusual access to the NYPD’s counterterrorism force for your book. How did you connect with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly?

“I had met Ray Kelly (NYPD Police Commissioner) in the private sector and was hoping to get good access in the Treasury Department; we stayed in touch. Kelly was looking at the feds. When he retired he was working at Bear Stearns and when 9/11 happened he realized he couldn’t rely on the federal government.”

How did you approach writing about terrorism from a new angle?

“The problem was to find an alternative to the militarized War on Terror which to me was never a good idea. What interested me about the NYPD was it didn’t deal with terrorist threats and who terrorists are [it deals with preventing terrorist attacks].”

What has the NYPD demonstrated about fighting terrorism at a local level?

“I don’t think people were focused on the idea that people can and should focus on what their police force can do to fight terrorism. One of the reasons the NYPD can do what they do is they’re a huge organization. They have 35,000 sworn police officers. San Francisco has 2,000 police. The LAPD has 10,000 officers. You’re looking at a municipal force when looking at the NYPD. It is sort of striking for people, [especially if they live in New York].”

How successful have they been so far?

“There’s a lot to be learned. Some of it is procedural—moving from prosecutorial to prevention. There a lot of things it can do that the federal government just wouldn’t do.”

How is the NYPD’s terrorism fighting force divided?

“There are two different branches of the NYPD [that fight terrorism]. One is the counter-terrorism bureau, which includes the counter-terrorism division (Richard Falkenrath is Director). The other is the intelligence division, which has raised some constitutional challenges (David Cohen, former CIA, is Director).”

How are things playing out in the courts with these foiled terrorists?

“There’s this long list of huge battles in the courts of law and of trying to take action. The FBI was badly burned in the Watergate era. Basically they have been very unsuccessful in getting convictions because there are all kinds of constitutional violations. The NYPD said—Cohen said, Kelly said—we are going to be careful, but we are going to penetrate groups that we feel may be a threat. This is a very grey area.”

Why are cities heavily populated with immigrants—like New York—relatively safe?

“Immigrants are a strength because they come to build lives and come to build the country. The NYPD doesn’t ask immigrant their status because you can’t have someone who is afraid of the police and then recruit informants [from immigrant communities]. CIA analysts have said that a big part of what goes on in the U.S. is the ‘American dream’. So the safest big cities in the U.S. are those with the highest number of first generation immigrants.”

What is the relationship between the FBI and the NYPD like?

“The FBI is constantly complaining about what the NYPD does. You hear from FBI guys in the trenches that the NYPD is overstepping the bounds, but when you ask for a specific example you can’t get an answer. The FBI can’t give specifics—on and off the record. What you get is allegations. Generalized allegations, and [Commissioner] Kelly is very sensitive to that.”

Why the rivalry or friction between the FBI and the NYPD?

“Part of it is probably jealousy. The New York Police Department answers to one man: Ray Kelly. And he answers to one man: the mayor. The federal side answers to all of congress.”

It seems Kelly has been effective preventing terrorism in his role. Why is that?

“Because Kelly came in January, 2002 in the wake of 9/11, he did two or three vital things. He said our mission is prevention, not prosecution. The Intelligence Division is exempt from COMSTADT. The second thing is the diversity of New York City could be a problem, or it could be an advantage because of the immigrant population. When Kelly came back (he was police commissioner for a period prior to 9/11) he said, ‘Let’s use people who speak the language’—Arabic, Urdu, Farsi—at a time when the federal government was desperate for anyone who spoke the language adequately.”

Why hasn’t the federal government made as much use of the immigrant community in the U.S. as the NYPD?

“The feds are terrified of moles and want to check your childhood background and cannot do it if you’re from Karachi (Pakistan). The federal government won’t give clearance to someone who is born in Karachi, but the NYPD does.”

How did the NYPD mine the immigrant community in New York for those who could work counterterrorism?

“The NYPD, after a couple of months testing volunteers, they found 700 people. They can walk the beat or work intel…go into Al Qaeda chat rooms, which they do. Forty percent of New York residents were not born in America. They stay in touch with their homes. You can probably find out more about what’s happening in Yemen today in Brooklyn than you can in Aden (port city in Yemen).”

There is always the danger of budget and personnel cuts in New York’s police force, especially in the current economy. How could that affect the NYPD’s counterterrorism work?

“Crime can increase in hard times. If crime starts to go up, the ability to fight terrorism goes down. You can talk about the theory of policing, but without the boots on the ground, what can you do?”

Read the full article about Tim Hetherington here

Among the new books that come out every fall, there are always a few stand-outs. Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold is one of them. Although the book was technically released earlier this summer, the thought-provoking combination of photojournalism, reportage, and international affairs history is notable among the most interesting releases of 2009.

Journalist Tim Hetherington, who took photographs, conducted interviews, and wrote cross-referenced captions for each photo, worked hard for every inch of the beautiful hard-bound volume. He lived behind rebel lines in the African country of Liberia during its civil war there from 2003 through 2008.

His photographs, all taken on film (not digitally), sweep across the wide pages with an eerie sense of darkness, an effect that Hetherington is keenly aware of. But he felt it naturally came about because of the subject matter.

“That’s what I like about photography—part of it is almost inexplicable,” says Mr. Hetherington. “There’s a magic to it, which I kind of like. I like that bit that we can’t quite explain. We just know, does it move us or not, is it interesting?”

Read the full article about Tim Hetherington here

Christian Poveda, a Franco-Spanish documentary filmmaker, was shot and killed yesterday morning  on the road near his home in Rosario, El Salvador. Poveda was a veteran journalist with experience reporting in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. His documentary about El Salvador’s two most notorious gangs, “La Vida Loca” is set to premiere on September 30 in France. You can see a trailer of the film here: http://www.lafemme-endormie.com/vidaloca.

In a statement on their website, the Committee to Protect Journalists Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for the Americas,  said:

“Christian Poveda’s recent film about El Salvador’s street gangs provided a powerful inside look into youth violence in one of Central America’s most dangerous regions. We urge the authorities to conduct a prompt and exhaustive inquiry into his murder and bring all those responsible to justice.”

A close friend, fellow journalist, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) board member Alan Mingam echoed similar sentiments on the RSF website:

“Christian was the son of Spanish Republicans who sought refuge in France. It was from his origins that he derived the strong humanist convictions to which he always remained faithful. He was a reporter in Chile, under the Pinochet dictatorship, in Nicaragua and El Salvador. He was very committed and involved in his subjects without taking sides. His humanistic convictions went hand in hand with a great deal of professional rigour.”