But it's Iraq - the alleged model for Middle East democracy - that remains the most dangerous country in the world for journalists: 19 were killed and 16 kidnapped in 2004 - including Sgrena, who was writing for Il Manifesto. Twelve fixers have been killed. Since the start of 2005, four journalists have been assassinated. Florence Aubenas of France's Liberation was kidnapped along with her fixer on January 5. Both are still missing.
Repression against journalists is inextricably linked to the absence of law and democracy. In Iraq, independent journalists are just pawns in a power game, trying to give some voice to the voiceless and establish some facts dissimulated by clouds of propaganda. Repression against journalists may also be inextricably linked to superpower military impunity.
Sgrena believes she was the victim of a Pentagon hit because she was trying to establish what really happened in the offensive against Fallujah in November, 2004. This may be very difficult to prove. But the worldwide perception of Pentagon unaccountability remains strong. The Pentagon is unaccountable for the death of Calipari and the wounding of Sgrena, unaccountable for the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, unaccountable for obliterating a whole city and turning its residents into refugees, unaccountable for Abu Ghraib. It will take more than a cut and paste job for the whole truth to emerge.
