This Brave Woman Gave Her Life to Bring You the News
Associated Press photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus was shot to death by an Afghan policeman Friday.
Associated Press photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus was shot to death by an Afghan policeman Friday.
She was on the job, and, according to a note from the AP, she may have been targeted.
Niedringhaus was an accomplished journalist who, in 2005, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award for her coverage of the Iraq War.
In an obituary, AP shares a warm, bittersweet anecdote from her last days:
Two days before her death, she made potatoes and sausage in Kabul for veteran AP correspondent Kathy Gannon, who was wounded in the attack that killed Niedringhaus, and photographer Muhammed Muheisen.
“I was so concerned about her safety. And she was like, ‘Momo, this is what I’m meant to do. I’m happy to go,’” Muheisen recalled. And then they talked, and argued. Mostly, they laughed.
AP CEO Gary Pruitt said in a letter to staff, “Anja is the 32nd AP staffer to give their life in pursuit of the news since AP was founded in 1846. As conflict spreads throughout regions of the world, journalism has become more dangerous. Where once reporters and photographers were seen as the impartial eyes and ears of crucial information, today they are often targets.”
Let us remember that the news is never free.
— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer
Wait, before you go…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
Wounds of War
Remembering the day that a war designed never to end began.
Global Voices
Crisscrossed by heroin transit routes from neighboring Afghanistan, the country’s youth confront a growing opioid epidemic.
Courts & Law
UN special rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin noted that the US treatment of detainees was “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”
Middle East
Amid a severe drought, Afghan scientists are asking the international community to engage with the brutal new regime.
The much-awaited US-Taliban agreement could finally end the longest U.S. war, but an end to violence is not assured.
President Trump may have surrendered to the Taliban, but as Truthdig columnist Danny Sjursen notes, that may not amount to the end of the conflict.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.