In Egypt, on the eleventh of February 2011—the night president Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed over power to the army—a revolution was on the move, but the next day, it was a female reporter who made the news. Lara Logan from CBS News, an experienced foreign correspondent, had been sexually assaulted in Tahir Square by a mob of men.
No Woman’s Land: On the Frontlines with Female Reporters
Compiled and edited by Hannah Storm and Helena Williams
International News Safety Institute, London 2012
The incident triggered a series of worldwide discussions on women’s safety when working in the field, particularly about those in conflict reporting. Across newsrooms and social networks, people were asking how this could happen and whether editors should or should not assign women to these stories. Suddenly, women on the frontline were the issue. The women in this book try to provide some answers to these questions, and many others that have arisen since ‘the Lara Logan incident’ in Cairo.
No Woman’s Land was inspired by what happened to Lara Logan. It is a compilation of thirty-eight testimonies by female reporters who have been covering conflict, destruction, civil unrest, disasters and many other stories in such challenging news environments. They have been everywhere, from Latin America to the Middle East, from Africa to Asia. They recount stories of horror and trauma; many were beaten or kidnapped. However, they all seem to be driven by the same idea - they are journalists first and women second.
The women in the book represent a wide media landscape: they come from the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera English, Reuters, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and many more. In the foreword of the book, Lara Logan is the first to voice her story. In speaking about her traumatic experience, she still states “I do not believe it should stop or deter women from doing this kind of work.”
Zahera Harb is another representative in the book. A senior lecturer on the International Journalism MA program at City University London, she is a former broadcast journalist from Lebanon, and has worked for Lebanese and international media organizations. She is also the author of Channels of Resistance in Lebanon: Liberation and Propaganda, Hezbollah and the Media.
Speaking to The Majalla, Harb said she wanted to “share her experience as an Arab female journalist with journalists from across the world.” On her contribution to the publication, she claims gender was never an issue when covering Lebanon. Questioned if the situation was different for other female journalists, for instance Western journalists, she said: “It is not an issue of gender as much as an issue of being foreign in settings that might be hostile to foreign journalists, by seeing them as political representatives of the countries they have come from.”
Considering more recent events involving female journalists, the lecturer and journalist speaks of a new trend in conflict reporting, particularly when it comes to Arab journalists. “What we have seen in the last few years is an increase in the number of female journalists as war reporters and investigative journalists. There has been a clear and obvious increase in Arab female war reporters and correspondents working for local and pan-Arab news organizations. They have shown a high level of professionalism combined with evident care to attend to detail,” she says.
No Woman’s Land was launched on 8 March, Women’s International Day. Many female journalists present at the launch expressed believe that they can bring something different to the story they are covering - a more human or sensitive perspective. For Harb it is about building trust. “From my own experience, I can say as a female journalist you build trust with the local people, in many cases, through compassion. In conservative societies it is an advantage that you are a female, because you can get access to places male journalists might not be able to.”
Indeed, some journalists do fall victim to violence when covering a conflict, Marie Colvin being one recent, tragic example. One question that often arises when working on the field is: are there any stories worth dying for? For Harb, this is not a yes or no question. “The rational answer is no, but sometimes journalists find themselves in the middle of a story and feel the obligation to hang onto it to bring greater good to the people that are involved in the story or affected by it.” As a final remark, Zahera stresses the importance of safety for all journalists. “Safety measures are essential for both male and female journalists and for freelancers. Emphasis on safety is even more evident.”
At the launch of the book in the headquarters of Thomson Reuters in London, a special tribute was paid to Marie Colvin and to all the women who have died in the past few years while working as journalists. As Lara Logan says in the book the challenges are there, “but in the end all we have is who we are.”
