I am now into my final few days visiting our news operation in Baghdad and wanted to answer readers questions before I leave. Ive grouped my responses into topics. Weve translated the reader feedback into Arabic for those Iraqi colleagues whose English is basic. They will be heartened by the many expressions of support for their work.

JOURNALIST SAFETY

Q. 11 handicap wanted to know what it takes to ensure physical and emotional wellbeing in a war zone like Iraq. k.taylor asked how the families of our Iraqi journalists cope with the constant worry of whether they are safe.

A. News organizations like Reuters have taken security increasingly seriously in the past decade or so as reporting has become more dangerous. We train our journalists how to behave in hostile environments, using professional instructors who are usually former soldiers or policemen. Our foreign security advisers fulfill that role in Baghdad. You can never be entirely safe in a war zone. It goes with the territory. But we can take steps to mitigate the risks. Flak jackets and helmets are one way and in many places we use armored cars without press markings (which would make you a target of kidnappers here). In Iraq, other than in an embed with U.S. forces, body armor can also increase the risk because it makes you stand out. Keeping a low profile, limiting the amount of time you spend in one place, not getting too close to danger and knowing when to turn back are all ways to reduce risk. We constantly tell our staff that no story is worth a life but, tragically, four Reuters journalists have been killed in Iraq. Journalists used to be quite macho about covering wars, pretending they could take anything. We now know that is nonsense. Our managers are trained to recognize signs of traumatic stress and we encourage our journalists to talk about what they have witnessed whether to a colleague or a manager. Relaxation also helps. Our compound has a small gym so people can exercise, which is another aid to coping with stress. Its important as well to get time off. You can burn out covering wars and the emotional toll creeps up on you. Some trauma is normal when you are under great stress and seeing awful things. Its a coping mechanism. If the strains become too great, our journalists can speak confidentially to trained trauma counselors. The stress is far greater when you are covering a conflict in your own country than in someone elses. There is an emotional attachment and you have to worry about family and friends as well as your own safety. Most of our Iraqi staff live in Baghdad and travel to work each day, making sure they leave for home well before the 9 p.m. curfew. So they do see their families most days and cell phone service is pretty good. If youre interested in learning more about the emotional aspects of journalism, The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is a very good resource. The Committee to Protect Journalists has details on all the journalists killed in Iraq since March 2003 most of them Iraqis.

LIFE IN THE REUTERS COMPOUND

Q. Paul DeMartino wondered whether there were any non-journalists at our compound and how much security is provided by some external agency. Mike Arkus says I should put my money where my mouth is and hopes we pay all staff, regardless of nationality, an equal salary.

We have quite a large support staff. There are two cooks and a couple of office managers as well as drivers, technicians, cleaners and maintenance workers. We also have two huge, diesel-run generators in the garden. More than three years after the U.S.-led invasion, the public power supply is still intermittent in Baghdad and the generators kick in a lot. Our foreign security advisers come from a British-based company, one of several such companies whose services the media and other organizations retain to help them operate in danger zones. We also use a private Iraqi security company to provide armed guards at the checkpoints on our street and in our compound and living quarters. We dont have any security provided by the U.S. or British military. All we ask is that the military treat journalists like civilians and respect their right to gather news.

On pay, salaries for our Iraqi staff are not necessarily the same as those of the foreigners who come here. Cost of living, taxation rates and pay levels for local journalists working for domestic and other foreign media all influence the way we set salaries around the world. So even the foreigners we have here get differing amounts, depending on where they are based. I am confident our Iraqi colleagues get competitive, decent salaries. In many cases they are higher than elsewhere in Reuters, including in Europe, for journalists with similar levels of experience.

GATHERING THE NEWS

Q. Paul H. Lasky is eager to know whether we publish news from insurgents and vet journalists for links to terrorism. linda l sabourin asks whether the news Iraqis get is filtered by the U.S.-led coalition. Ben Lipstein wonders how often Reuters uses Iraqi news outlets as sources and which ones are the most credible. Nic is uncertain whether what he reads is propaganda or news and asks why there arent any images of dead soldiers. takoyaki” wants to know what non-American journalists think of U.S. media coverage of Iraq. Jed would love to see footage of planes making corkscrew dive landings at Baghdad airport but wonders whether filming them is censored.

A. Many of our Iraqi colleagues have a strong record of reliability built over many years with Reuters. As anywhere in the world, we are cautious with newer recruits and ask our longer-standing Arabic-speaking staff to assess them. We never run news from any source, except an official, named source, without checking it with other sources. Since our Bureau Chief cant travel with any real ease outside Baghdad, we encourage freelance reporters in Iraqs towns and cities to come to Reuters for training in our standards, including the principle that we do not take sides in any conflict or dispute. We drive that message home at every opportunity. Over time, we come to know whether people are reliable. If they arent, its goodbye. As for links with terrorism or the insurgency, we have no evidence that anyone working for Reuters is associated with any party to the conflict. Since we have come to know our staff very well over the years, we are confident of that.

Some of our Iraqi journalists have been detained by U.S. forces. They have all been released without charge and senior U.S. officers have told us there was no credible evidence against them. It is essential to cover all sides of a conflict and if you live in say, Falluja, it is part of your duty as a journalist to chronicle the reality. In Iraq, that reality includes armed men shooting at U.S. and Iraqi forces. We do report news from the insurgents and from al-Qaeda in Iraq. They are part of this conflict. Most of that material comes from statements posted on Islamist Web sites which we monitor, mainly in Dubai. Of course, some of the material sent our way is propaganda. All sides including the Americans and British will use information to try to sway hearts and minds and portray what they are doing in the best light. Its the job of journalists to be cautious so we dont become mouthpieces. I think we manage to avoid that trap pretty well at Reuters.

Iraqs media has expanded rapidly since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Newspapers tend to be affiliated with different political groupings. Several TV stations have also sprung up. We sometimes quote Iraqiya state television for official announcements. We also monitor it and other channels for interviews it conducts with government officials and political leaders but we do most newsgathering ourselves. The United States funds an Arabic broadcaster, Al Hurra and Iraqi journalists are establishing their own independent news agency, Aswat al-Iraq. In reality, though, much of the news in the Iraqi media is actually from the big international agencies like Reuters because we have the most extensive networks of journalists. Reuters has a respected news service in Arabic, which is a leading source of news in its own right across the Middle East. It has its own reporter in our Baghdad newsroom and also translates stories from English. The United States does not censor news published in Iraqi newspapers. In fact, most Iraqi journalists try not to be associated with the coalition after it emerged last year that an arm of the U.S. military was paying for good news stories. As for U.S. media coverage of the conflict, American journalists are among the last foreign reporters here and I would not question their integrity. If readers or viewers are unhappy with their reporting, newspapers and broadcasters have channels for complaint, like public editors and ombudsmen. U.S. newspapers are more cautious about publishing the images of dead soldiers or any other graphic or disturbing images than in some other countries. But I dont believe that is the main reason why there are so few photographs of dead American service personnel. We have had some such photographs at Reuters. But it is highly unlikely that a photographer will be present to capture such images. With fewer and fewer foreign journalists in Iraq as the dangers have grown, fewer photographers are going on embeds with American units. That spells practical limitations. New York Times columnist David Carr wrote an interesting think piece about this in June.

Finally we come to the corkscrew dive. I can testify that the anticipation is scarier than the reality. Its not that bad, even after an in-flight breakfast. Im not aware of any particular restrictions on filming aircraft in flight.

THE SITUATION IN IRAQ

Q. Nic Fulton asks how our Iraqi staff see things turning out and Jon Allan wants to know if the U.S. should leave the country. I mentioned in my blog that Iraqis, regardless of religious or ethnic background, feel able to mingle at Reuters without seeing each other as potentially hostile. That led Roelf Renkema to ask whether that meant such gatherings cannot happen elsewhere in Iraq. Stephen wants to know why people are allowed to carry assault rifles in Iraq.

A. Each household in Iraq is allowed to have one automatic rifle but people are not allowed to carry them in public. The fact that so many do reflects the deep instability in Iraq, a country awash with weapons and explosives, and the proliferation of militias, insurgents and armed groups. Like people everywhere, the vast majority of Iraqis want nothing more than to live their lives, educate their children and have access to jobs in an atmosphere of peace and security. Our staff are no different. Like all Iraqis, they have seen security deteriorate over the past three years. Two stories this week by my colleagues Ahmed Rasheed and Mustafa Mahmoud, illustrate just how difficult it has become to stay away from danger.

While they fear for the unity of Iraq, as with many Iraqis, the journalists Ive talked to hope that ultimately the country will stay together. There are many mixed marriages and mixed towns in Iraq, making an outright sectarian and ethnic partition impossible without forced population transfers. A surge in sectarian killings since February, when a Shiite Muslim shrine was bombed in the town of Samarra, has deepened suspicions and made it harder for Iraqis of different backgrounds to get together even though in mixed cities like Baghdad it was very much the norm for hundreds of years. That said, opinion polls suggest Iraqis want a united Iraq and are no different from Americans in wanting U.S. and other foreign troops to leave. Not right now, necessarily, but over the next year. An indication of Iraqi sentiment came in an opinion poll conducted by a policy group at the University of Maryland in late September. The survey found that most Iraqis believed the troops were provoking more conflict than they prevented.

REUTERS IS IT REALLY FREE FROM BIAS?

Q. Whodunit, Roy Hastings and Jim Patterson all challenge my statements that Reuters prides itself on fairness, accuracy and freedom from bias. Whodunit refers to an incident in August when a blog in the United States reported that a photograph of the aftermath of an Israeli air raid in Beirut had been altered using Photoshop software so that there appeared to be more smoke. Ben Lipstein also wants to know if we give our Iraqi photographers access to Photoshop.

First the Beirut incident. Reuters was pleased that the blogger, Charles Johnson, drew attention to the photograph. We welcome feedback from readers and critics, for better or worse, because it leads to more honest, more transparent journalism. The photographer who altered the image was a freelance and we ended our relationship with him within 18 hours of being alerted to the problem and withdrew the photo. The next day, when we found a second suspect photograph, we removed more than 900 of his photos from our sales database. The fact that the photograph got issued at all came down to human error in an operation that worldwide puts out around 1,500 photos a day. Weve since made our guidelines on Photoshop use much more explicit

Photoshop is a standard tool for photographers but it is how you use the software that counts. The rule of thumb in the news business is that you must not do more with Photoshop than you used to do in a darkroom in the days of 35mm film. Some of our Iraqi photographers do use Photoshop but only to crop their images, which is fine. Most send in untouched raw images. All the photos that leave Iraq are edited by a highly experienced Chief Photographer who works seven days a week during his rotation. That position is now held by a foreign photographer with 27 years experience.

I really wish I could convince the critics that Reuters really is committed to independence, integrity and freedom from bias. We are not out to make President Bush or anyone else look bad. Period. Nor are we out to make anyone look good or part of some vast media conspiracy. We simply try our very best, as all decent news services do, to present an accurate, balanced, fair news file. Sometimes we miss the mark. Were human. When we do, we correct our stories.

Id ask the critics to look at some of the other comments posted on the blog to understand how deeply divided public opinion is over Iraq. They might also be interested to know that there are plenty of instances here in Iraq when Reuters and individual journalists who work for us have been threatened, attacked, sometimes kidnapped and tortured, and accused of being agents variously of Zionism or America, British imperialists or apologists for global capitalism. Independent journalists often end up angering people on both sides at the same time. Its inevitable in war situations because conflicts arouse such passions. After all, people wouldnt be fighting if they agreed on the issues.

Do we deliberately ignore good news stories from Iraq? No we dont. Iraq, though, is a country where the U.N. estimates some 3,000 civilians are killed by violence each month a toll that equates roughly to 36,000 Americans a month as a proportion of the population. We cant always get to the good news stories anyway. Its usually too dangerous to take to the roads. But we do aim to reflect Iraq in all its realities as best we can. Here is a story my colleague Claudia Parsons wrote after spending 24 hours following the work of the medical staff of the Baghdad ER.

Paul Holmes, Editor, Political & General News