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Logan Has 'Broken That Code of Silence'

Female journalists have suffered abuse for years, writes Kim Barker

By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 20, 2011 5:33 AM CST

(Newser) – Journalist Kim Barker was covering a jubilant demonstration in Pakistan in 2007, with thousands cheering for the country's chief justice, when the crowd turned on her, groping her relentlessly. She only escaped because the chief justice saw and let her take shelter in his car. "I knew other female correspondents who weren’t so lucky," Barker writes at Pro Publica. "I would never tell my bosses for fear that they might keep me at home the next time something major happened. "

In going public with her sexual assault while covering protests in Egypt, Lara Logan "has broken that code of silence," which Barker says female reporters have endured for years. While The Committee to Protect Journalists tracks the number of reporters killed in the line of duty, they do not record rapes, and more journalists do not report it. "[T]the lesson she is now giving young women is probably her most profound," writes Barker: "It’s not your fault. And there’s no shame in telling it like it is."

In this Feb. 11, 2001 photo released by CBS, 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan is shown covering the reaction in in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
In this Feb. 11, 2001 photo released by CBS, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan is shown covering the reaction in in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.   (AP Photo/CBS News)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 8 comments
czechwizard
Feb 21, 2011 3:50 AM CST
True, Feces1. For example, I'm an over-the-top qualified/sophisticated Czech in Nicaragua and know better. I've created my own jungle and live an extremely primitive life. Reporters should come to film me during my Sixth Gospel rites, like 25/8, or 24/7, whichever you prefer, the dubbed Czech Hollywod Warrior Priest from Serious Entertainment on my Paraiso Tropical estate - un-fucking-believable, yes, indeed !
Feces1
Feb 20, 2011 12:54 PM CST
She needs to remember she is an another country, she is going to get felt up as a woman, they don't have laws like we do. Third world countries are third world for a reason, they have not yet known what it is like to be civilized with laws that protect you. When you go overseas you have to remember the constitution no longer protects you and you enter at your own risk, if you're a reporter it goes with the territory that you may encounter undesirable situations, suck it up and move on, stop crying about it!
 

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