US journo, translator killed in Afghanistan
Award- winning photojournalist was travelling with Afghan Army unit that came under fire
Washington, June 6: Awardwinning American journalist David Gilkey and his translator were killed while travelling with an Afghan Army unit that came under fire in southern Helmand province, in a sign of just how dangerous the conflict remains for the media trying to cover it.
The translator was identified as Zabihullah Tamanna, 38. Two other National Public Radio journalists travelling with Gilkey in a separate vehicle, reporter Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva, were unharmed.
NPR said the vehicle in which Gilkey, 50, and his translator were travelling was struck by shellfire near the town of Marjah on Sunday.
A Taliban hotbed, the opium- rich province of Helmand is almost entirely under the control of insurgents.
“David has been covering war and conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/ 11. He was devoted to helping the public see these wars and the people caught up in them. He died pursuing that commitment,” said Michael Oreskes, NPR’s senior vicepresident of news and editorial director.
“As a man and as a photojournalist, David brought out the humanity of all those around him. He let us see the world and each other through his eyes.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom group, said that prior to the deaths of Gilkey and Tamanna, 24 journalists and one media worker have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001 US- led invasion.
Reports said Gilkey was the first non- military American journalist killed since the start of the conflict.
Gilkey received a 2007 Emmy award for a video series about Michigan Marines in Iraq. His photography also helped earn NPR a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Ebola epidemic.
“Even though much of the world’s attention has shifted away, let no one doubt that Afghanistan remains a dangerous place for journalists — local and foreign — working to cover that protracted conflict,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia coordinator. “We are deeply saddened by the deaths of Zabihullah Tamanna and David Gilkey. There are too many journalists who have given their lives to tell the Afghan story.”
Gilkey received a 2007 Emmy award for a video series about Michigan Marines in Iraq. His photography also helped earn NPR a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Ebola epidemic.
Gilkey’s colleagues responded with shock at the news of his sudden death, the first time in NPR’s 46year history that it has lost a journalist on a reporting assignment. As a man and as a photojournalist, David brought out the humanity of all those around him. He let us see the world and each other through his eyes. — MICHAEL ORESKES, NPR’s editorial director
( I pay tribute to the) intrepid journalists — and their interpreters — trying to convey that important story to the rest of the world
— JOHN KERRY, US secretary of state