For journalists, Iraq is a continuing danger
Other news organizations have reported that their Iraqi employees have been beaten, held in solitary confinement, and detained on obscure charges. But there have been two recent developments that both Jordan and Campagna say hold promise of protecting journalists–particularly Iraqis–working in Iraq: The Pentagon has for the first time recognized the status of nonembedded journalists reporting from the scene of attacks. That's a significant softening of the military's earlier position that only journalists embedded with U.S. forces will be recognized and guaranteed some expectation of safety and ability to work freely.
The military has also adopted a fast-track policy for arrested Iraqis and others who identify themselves as journalists. The military says it will review claims within days, and the detainee released quickly if his or her journalism credentials are established. (Mashandani, the Reuters employee, was among the first to be released under the new program, though marines had held him for a week before military commanders were alerted, Campagna said.)
Jordan says the fast-track program under Maj. Gen. John Gardner "is the first really encouraging news on this front for some time. If it can be maintained, this is a great leap forward."
These days, Jordan is still focused on Iraq professionally. He's months away from launching a new venture called Praedict–an Iraq-based, 24-hour online subscription service that will provide breaking Iraq news, locations and trends of recent attacks, tips for finding the safest travel routes, and intelligence reports from a team of 50 Iraqis dispatched across the country.
The new business seems, in part, a labor of love: Ten CNN employees were killed under Jordan's watch–seven in Somalia and three in Iraq. Jordan, who has invested a bundle of his own money, says he believes at least two of his employees in Iraq could have been spared by a similar service.
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