68 Journalists Killed in 2009

It's not something that makes me want to go overseas and cover interesting stories about rape and prostitution. If you click on the title of this blog, you will be taken to an Associated Press article on the Editor & Publisher website, giving you the numbers and locations of killed journalists. None of the 68 journalists killed in 2009 were killed in the United States, but a lot of local foreign journalists were killed in the countries they lived in.

The Shocking Facts:

• 60 percent increase in deaths from 2008. 68 deaths / 42 deaths
• 67 deaths in 2007
• 30 of those 68 were murdered in the Philippines 

 According to the article, these journalists are not all dying in the line of fire. Most of the journalists killed are being murder for doing their job. Nine of the 68 were killed in Somalia during combat conditions. Others were killed for the stories they wrote or for the blogs they wrote expressing their opinions. In Mexico, print journalists died for writing stories on drug traffiking and organized crime. 56 percent of the 68 kills were because of blogging about important stories that television or other print publications have yet to pick up.

When I have my own magazine, that's what it's supposed to be based on; stories that others don't want to cover because of the sensitive material. I know the risks of journalism; it's dangerous. It's not something to get yourself into if you don't expect there to be consequences for your work. And I don't plan on dying or anything, but I do plan to express my opinion about some things that conservative, closed-minded people don't want to hear about. Religion. Abortion. Arranged Marriages. Social Issues. Cultural Issues. Political Stupidity. Your Stupidity! These are just some of the things that I want to write to get your brain working and moving away from being closed-minded. I want to open the minds of the closed-minded. Am I will to die for it, though? Am I willing to die for my opinion? Are you?

(This video contains violent images. Proceed with caution)

It's a tough question, but it's got to be in the back of your mind if you are going to be in this field. As you can see, the numbers are rising. People don't like journalists. They expose you and they tell your business and most of the time it's without remorse. That doesn't mean we should die for it. When one person thinks you should die for writing an article, another person thinks you should be commended for writing that article. But as soon as you put your name in that byline, there's no turning back. The decision is then up to society. There is no journalist protection program.

I don't want to know that my kind are being killed while on duty, but I'm not going to kill people who are staff of the Associated Press because they wrote an article that was depressing. I'm going to take what I read, put it into prospective, and go on with my day knowing that I have one more piece of knowledge that I didn't have before. That's all it is. News. And you deserve to know what's going on in the world.

Why You Shouldn't Be Happy That Ohio is 60 in November

Global Warming has been an issue that has apparently been a long time coming, but I have never put my two-cents in on it. Part of that reason is because I like the fact that Cleveland is warmer than it should be. I get tired of the slippery slopes and dangerous commutes to work from snow-covered streets. But, despite my own angers with wintery conditions, that doesn't mean that I should be happy about the neglect we have put on our planet.

 

Editor & Publisher, America's oldest journal covering the newspaper industry, had an article last night that talks a bit about the toll global warming has taken on certain editors. According to the E&P staff, 56 papers from 45 different countries have decided to write a connecting editorial based on the world's climate change scares and how we need to take cahrge, come together and try to make matters better instead of worse. Here is a snippet of what they said:

"Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted."

(Click on the Editor & Publisher link above for the full-story)

Well, someone's not happy. But I think they have the right idea. One point they made that really clicked in my brain is that we are running out of time to fix this situation. I've been hearing about these climate change issues for years now and I haven't really heard too many great ideas.

One idea I came across this morning to amend the situation was the possibility of "injecting particles of sulfur into the stratosphere—the upper layer of the atmosphere—to cool the planet and buy time for humans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions". Now, I'm sure that wasn't exactly a half-hearted idea from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen. He must know a little bit about what he's talking about if he won a Nobel-Prize before (or at least you would hope). The idea might not be bad, but I would have fear for people who are allergic to sulfur. Whose to say that the sulfur could contaminate the air and start making people drop like flies? I'm not a scientist (obviously) but I don't think injecting things into the air that is already contaminated is a good idea, no matter what layer of whatever-sphere it is. And even if the idea is safe, whose to say we have enough time to wait for it to work? Whose to say anyone will change their behavior after the injection? The National Georgraphic article that this information came from states that Crutzen's injection would "imitate the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions". Other people who are like me are just going to be scared that something is going to explode and kill us all before the sun fries us like chicken wings! Volcanic eruptions don't sound good! Even if it is something that would just resemble it...it's all too scary.

I don't want to give up on believing that we still have time to right this wrong, but part of me is thinking that our time is quickly coming to a close. And I don't even know what will happen whenever something does happen because of these climate changes, but I know it won't be good. Otherwise, people wouldn't be making such a fuss about it. All we can do is try to cut down on the pollution and our own personal emission of greenhouse gases. I don't know if this thing will be a silent killer or not, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Here is one last quote from the E&P article:

"It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too."

If only it was so simple...