Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Polish minister, conventions of war and the Reporters Sans Frontières

A good person wrote to me saying that perhaps Sikorski just dressed himself up in a Talib costume. I am going to translate some of Sikorski's revelations but here's what I responded:
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Well, Radek Sikorski was a journalist who carried a weapon and possibly murdered people.

I assume he even killed peaceful Afghans

I am going to translate what he wrote himself about his homicidal adventures as Talib in Afghanistan

Now what is wrong with this picture? A commentary

Radek Sikorski is a war criminal because his actions were in violation of war conventions on non-combatants and of rules of war. As a journalist he was supposed to be an independent person, not a party to the conflict. The Reporters without Borders, Reporters Sans Frontières, lament the fate of journalists occasionally killed in the zones of armed conflicts. If we take the record of how many reporters were murdered in Iraq for example, it becomes apparent that Journalists are usually murdered by the US or its NATO vassals. Reporters Sans Frontières proclaim that journalists should not be killed because they are not combatants, but are unarmed and impartial truth seekers and reporters of news. A question arises in view of Radek Sikorski's self-revelations - are reporters indeed non-combatants or are some reporters non-combatants while others are very much combatants? Which are to be exempt? For example, can Polish journalists be considered non-combatants or if a Polish reporter is spotted on or in the vicinity of a battlefield, he can or should be killed without remorse or a second thought? Sikorski's revelations confirm that to be the case.

I would love to write a letter to the Reporters Sans Frontières (and perhaps someone can help me with putting such a letter together) asking them for a commentary on Sikorski's journalism and providing a clarification on whether all reporters are indeed non-combatants including even those who are partial, armed and do participate in combat?

Finally I think a major revision of the status of journalists is long overdue. First on the level of Russian Federation domestic laws and then in international treaties a clear legal distinction must be made between three groups - bona fide journalists and reporters who deserve legal and international treaty protection; enemy combatants who masquerade as reporters and, thirdly, enemy propagandists, i.e. people who do not report the news or cover events impartially but are agents of foreign governments or privately-held propaganda outfits whose job consists of falsifying information on a consistent and continuous basis and who are engaged in what can be legally defined as propaganda (Edward Lucas and Sikorski's spouse, Anne Applebaum, fit that category rather perfectly).

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