Journalists In The Crosshairs

Reporters heading into a war zone know they are taking certain risks, but in Kabul Wednesday the press corps got an official warning - not about frontline dangers, but to watch their backs everywhere.

CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth reports there's new evidence of a threat to kidnap foreign journalists. A threat as real in the local marketplace as in the combat zone, according to an international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

"It is a way of life, hostage-taking, etcetera, does go on, has gone on, and it's something that we need to understand as foreigners coming into this country," said Lt. Col. Neal Pekham of the International Security Assistance Force.

The war on terror has been different for the politicians who lead it and the soldiers who fight it, and it has also meant changes for the reporters who cover it.

Afghanistan has been deadly ground for the press corps. Eight journalists have been killed since U.S. air strikes began last October. Several were targets merely because of their occupations. A ninth, Daniel Pearl, was killed doing his job in Pakistan. A casualty of war a long way from the craters left by bombs dropped from B-52s.

According to New York Times reporter John Burns, a reporter's impartiality provides no protection anywhere near the war zone.

"Not here, not here. Look at this entire war on terrorism," Burns said.

He says al Qaeda and Taliban fighters make no distinction between combatants and civilians. In this war where anyone's fair game, journalists just make easy targets.

"I don't for example think that there's a single safe road in Afghanistan to travel down. How to deal with that problem, I don't know," Burns added.

On the road to Gardez, Canadian reporter Kathleen Kenna was badly injured Monday when a grenade was thrown at her car.

Kenna, 47, a reporter for the Toronto Star, arrived Wednesday at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, where she and nine wounded American soldiers transported with her were transferred to a nearby hospital.

The attack on Kenna prompted a French press organization to ask the Afghan government for help.

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) said in a statement it has sent a letter to Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai expressing deep concern for the security of journalists in Afghanistan.

RSF said it wanted Karzai's government to provide security for journalists.

"With this being the biggest land-based operation carried out by the United States since the start of the conflict, it seems more urgent than ever to ensure the safety of journalists in the field and to do everything possible not to add to the sad total of journalists already killed in Afghanistan," said Robert Menard, RSF's general secretary.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 37 journalists were killed worldwide in 2001, up from 24 killed in 2000.

The CPJ tally, one of the more conservative among media watchdog groups, includes the eight journalists killed covering the war in Afghanistan after the start of U.S. air strikes to bomb the Taliban from power for harboring Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

A U.S. General pointedly summed up the situation Wednesday, warning reporters "These thugs will kill you in a heartbeat."