Profiles in Courage
We heard great news this weekend that Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek, along with his driver and translator, are finally free after more than a month in a Sudanese jail. Salopek, a News Gems favorite who has won two Pulitzers, was on assignment in Sudan for National Geographic magazine when the Sudanese government charged him with "espionage."
Salopek's ordeal underlines the courage of reporters who continue to report on the genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Sunday's New York Times features a powerful story by writer Lydia Polgreen and photographer Jehad Nga. Their "Darfur Trembles as Peacekeepers’ Exit Looms" describes how refugees fear they will be slaughtered if African Union peacekeepers leave as demanded by the Sudanese government.
Craig Timberg of The Washington Post also continues to report about the Darfur crisis. His story "In Darfur's Death Grip" recounts with fierce detail how a former rebel faction, Sudanese soldiers and the Janjaweed militia recently destroyed a village, killing and raping its inhabitants. I pray that Timberg, Polgreen, Nga and other journalists can continue to bravely tell us about this great humanitarian crisis despite the efforts of the Sudanese government to shut them up.