3 juli 2006, klockan 10:13
Our Friend, Journalist Martin Adler assassinated In
Photo: Journalist Martin Adler
We just learnt with great shock, the assassination of our friend -journalist Martin Adler. The courageous international journalist, who went to our southern Zone in the late 2005 was gunned down today in the Somali’s capital
According to a colleague, the Swedish national TV is broadcasting this sad news about the assassination of this selfless, determined and courageous professional journalist, his various field trips to many parts of the globe and so on.
Martin was singled out from among two dozens of foreign journalist covering Somalis huge demonstration this afternoon in capital. The assassin killed Martin with several round of bullets, hitting at his chest and managed to vanish among the thousands of marchers.
Among his lifetime’s journalistic historic coverage were the Oromo struggle for Freedom, and the noble work of Oromo’s vanguard organization the OLF. Of his last works, the Swedish born, late Martin Adler traveled all the way to our Southern military Zone, last year and stayed with our fighters for three weeks. Where upon his safe return, helped to publicize our course in the Swedish and Scandinavian newspapers, Magazines, TV-channels and websites in several languages for well over weeks.
Martin sent an e-mail message during his campaign in the media then, complaining that he was receiving several threatening calls and messages, from peoples who claimed to be Ethiopians, accusing him of ‘ participating in activities aimed at dividing Ethiopia and undermining the legitimate government of Ethiopia’. We remember telling him that ‘those are non other than the Ethiopian regime’s agent and they never have tolerance for any independent and different opinion from theirs’. He never looked back!
We have no doubt that this is as usual the work of the TPLF/EPRDF’s hit-squad network, which is definitely all over
May God bless Martin’s soul and give his family the courage at this difficult moment.
Source: http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/3276/perma/44056/
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Martin Adler: superb, brave journalist. Realist.
- 23 Jun 06
Martin Adler, an award winning freelance journalist, was shot and killed in Mogadishu earlier today. I worked with Martin on a report on the revolt by the people of the Niger Delta against the oil companies whose wealth has so conspicuously not trickled down. The Newsnight team's visas had been sat on by the Nigerian government but Martin went in on a tourist visa and shot an incredible 12 minute film. We bought the rights to it and he and I worked on the script of the film together. I learned a lot from Martin: he had just won the Rory Peck Award for Charlie Company - an embed film with the US military.
Martin's approach to video journalism is the opposite to the way most mainstream media works: you go there, get the footage using little battered video cameras, you don't shoot "sequences" - you shoot the truth. He went on and on at me in the edit about the film director Lars von Trier and his philopsophy of Dogma, Rule Three of which says:
The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place).
Initial reports say that it was with camera in hand that Martin was shot by an assailant in the midst of an otherwise peaceful demonstration today. Martin worked freelance - going to the places corporate media are wary of, then selling the story to the highest bidder. He is one of a small clan of elite world affairs journalists who can shoot, write, produce, edit. Because of Martin, and people like him, we know a bit of the truth about what conflict does: it senselessly kills people, degrades them
I will remember him not just for the stories he got but for the way he told them - every work was an act of authorship. Of that clan he was the least scarred and cynical.
I can see him now, sitting in an edit suite, spinning through his own footage, debating with me whether we had been "true" to one of the subjects in the piece. Making calls about the next dangerous trip he was about to make. Going on about Lars Von Trier, truth and reality.
He put himself, his hand-held camera, his intellect and sense of humour in the way of the world's meanest people and horrible situations.
A senseless gesture by a man with a gun in a lawless, poverty stricken country has killed him. Thanks to Martin, millions of people understand why such senseless gestures are made, why countries are poverty stricken, and who supplies the guns.
BBC News Blogs
1 comment:
Marika- How un-Swedish of a Swede! We have proudly stood on the basis of neutrality and peace and have never really taken sides like that.
Mizza- you wrapped that up konjo, Marika. But that was way too drastic for someone to do that. Even though I fully understand the fact that Ethiopia is stricken with poverty, I know it is rising into a new phase of reconciliation and renewal. But killing a SWEDE? Come on, what has SWEDEN ever done to upset Ethiopia?
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