Erstellt am: 19. 1. 2012 - 15:17 Uhr

The Face and Voice of a Hero

Reality Check: World Press Freedom Hero David Rohde; Political turmoil in Pakistan; stolen nuclear material in Egypt; Brits' lack of solidarity and "Risflection"

New York Times

IPI World Press Freedom Hero David Rohde. Photo: New York Times

If it hadn’t been for the investigative journalist David Rohde, the massacre of Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War in the 1990s might not have come to light when it did. In 1995, Rohde, an American reporter whose stories were published in the Christian Science Monitor, went into Bosnian Serb territory to visit the Muslim enclave and found evidence to support allegations that hundreds of Bosnian Muslims had been killed and buried in mass graves. He saw things like human limbs sticking out of the ground and buildings covered in blood. At the beginning of his investigation, he didn’t “grasp the numbers,” he says, thinking at first that perhaps a few dozen people were involved. His persistence in trying to uncover the facts landed him in the custody of Bosnian Serb police who held him for 10 days and threatened to charge him with spying. At the time David was in his late 20s. Today, in part thanks to David Rohde, we know that 7,000 people were killed in that massacre.

David Rohde has been named by the International Press Institute as this year’s World Press Freedom Hero, an award which “recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to defending and promoting press freedom, especially, but not only, if it involved acts of resistance or bravery under harsh conditions.” He has already been awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice: he was part of a New York Times team that was awarded the prize in 2009 for its “ground-breaking coverage of America’s deepening military and political challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan”. At the time, Rohde was once again being held in captivity, this time by the Taliban who had kidnapped Rohde and two Afghan colleagues. After seven months he and his colleagues managed to escape.
But it was his reporting on Srebrenica which won Rohde his first Pulitzer Prize in 1996. Talking to Reality Check about the experience, David says with great modesty that he was “lucky enough to have a role in helping to expose [the] mass executions … I think no story will ever equal that one in terms of how much it mean to me personally. It was a rare example of the best thing about journalism which is, you know, every day you try to tell the truth”. David Rohde tells Steve Crilley about his experiences and his views on new media and the future of investigative journalism:

Pakistan

Pakistan's Supreme Court wants the country’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to answer allegations of contempt of court. Gilani is accused of failing to ask the Swiss authorities to reopen corruption investigations against dozens of Pakistani lawmakers, including President Asif Ali Zadari. As our international security expert Paul Rogers tells Gennie Johnson, the stand-off is threatening political stability in Pakistan:

Egypt

Egyptian state media are reporting that radioactive material has been stolen from a controversial nuclear power station on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Elizabeth Alcock asks nuclear expert John Eldridge what they might have taken and what the dangers could be:

Britain

Nik Martin in London tells us about a new study indicating that fewer Brits have a sense of solidarity towards those at the lower end of the social scale:

"Risflection"

Learning to deal with risk should be an integral part of education for children and teenagers, says social entrepreneur Gerald Koller. In an interview with Chris Cummins, he explains why: