Nieman Awards Slain Journalist

Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism has presented their award for integrity this year to a journalist, Atwar Bahjat, who was kidnapped and killed in Iraq.

Bahjat, who was a correspondent for the Dubai-based news service, Al Arabiya, was covering a bombing in Samarra, Iraq, near the time of her death on Feb. 22.

The award, known as the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, was established by the 1964 Class of Nieman Fellows and comes with a $1000 honorarium.

Nieman Fellow for 2006 David Heath, an investigative reporter for The Seattle Times, said that war coverage is one of the most dangerous assignments for journalists. Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, 49 Iraqi journalists have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a N.Y.-based non-profit organization.

“Atwar Bahjat stood out [from the other candidates] because so many of her fellow Iraqis saw her as a courageous voice for unity in a war-torn country,” said Heath. “Bahjat was half-Shiite and half-Sunni and called for unity even in her last broadcast.”

Nadia Charters, a senior correspondent at Al Arabiya, echoed these sentiments about her colleague.

“She was a very dedicated journalist and very emotionally involved in the story,” Charters said.

The acknowledgment of Arab journalists by Western institutions such as the Nieman Foundation was a new trend and an honor, she added.