Stephen Farrell, a British-Irish journalist working for the New York Times, was rescued from Taliban captivity on Wednesday morning, according to global news reports.

His Afghan interpreter, Sultan Munadi, was killed during the operation, the Telegraph reports.

According to as yet unconfirmed reports by the Associated Press, a British commando was also killed during the raid.

The Guardian reports:

“Military officials in Kabul told the Associated Press a British soldier was killed in the raid. The Ministry of Defence was unable to confirm the reports this morning.”

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The Associated Press (AP) has explained its decision last week to publish an image of Lance Corporal Joshua M. Bernard, a US marine fatally wounded in combat in Afghanistan.

According to reports, the soldier’s family did not want the photo in question to be published.

The AP has also confirmed it received a letter from US defence secretary Robert Gates asking the agency not to publish it.

Now the agency has explained its decision – including the following from the AP’s director of photography, Santiago Lyon:

“AP journalists document world events every day. Afghanistan is no exception. We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is.”

Full story at this link…

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Rivals currently claim to both be on track for victory in the Afghan elections, in a race watched closely by the world’s media – mainstream, citizen and social.

The Guardian, for example, reports that ‘President Karzai’s staff said he has taken a majority of votes, making a second round run-off unnecessary,’ while Abdullah’s spokesman, Sayyid Agha Hussain Fazel Sancharaki, said the former foreign minister ‘was ahead with 62 per cent of the vote,’ even though preliminary results are not yet expected.

But publicity hasn’t always been courted by the government: critics the world over were shocked by the Afghan foreign ministry’s demand for a media blackout. On Wednesday, the government ordered all journalists not to report acts of violence during its elections, as a last minute attempt to boost voter turn out.

Both the foreign and domestic media said they intended to ignore the ban. Rahimullah Samander, head of the Independent Journalist Association of Afghanistan said that they would ‘not obey this order’. “We are going to continue with our normal reporting and broadcasting of news,” he told the Associated Press.

Both domestic and foreign reporters turned out in force to cover yesterday’s election.  Although the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that there have been reports of at least three foreign journalists and several local journalists detained and other acts of aggression towards the media, it is believed that no one was seriously injured.

As with the Iranian election protests, yesterday highlighted the pivotal role social media and citizen journalists now play within mainstream news. Here are a few examples:

• Alive in Afghanistan introduced a new system during yesterday’s elections allowing citizens to ‘report disturbances, defamation and vote tampering, or incidents where everything ‘went well’ via text message. BBC report at this link.

• The Guardian’s live updated its readers via its World Blog and reported ‘explosions’ in areas ‘where the Taliban is very strong,’ linking to a tweet by an Al Jazeera presenter. “Polling stations have opened, but according to Twitter updates, 152 of 643 polls in southern Afghanistan have stayed closed,” it reported at one point.

• Demotix, the citizen-journalism and photography agency which saw its profile rise during the Iranian election protests, was also instrumental in documenting the day’s events. Follow Afghanistan photographs and stories at this link. “We’ve had reports from Kabul, Helmand, Kandahar and most other provinces during yesterday’s election and the preceding weeks. As well as the political campaigns, our reporters covered the fierce violence including last week’s Taliban attack on a NATO convoy,” said commissioning editor Andy Heath.

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Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features:

• Express criticised by ASA for masking advertorials as features
• NUJ photographers launch campaign against Guardian ‘rights grab’
• Meet the Trainers: Martin Cloake – How to pitch and market a book
• Baptiste Aboulian appointed associate editor of Ignites Europes

Ed’s picks:

• WSJ: Vibe magazine resurrected with web focus
• NMA: Mail Online stops pre-moderation of user comments
• AFP: Journalists wounded in Aghan bomb attack
• Independent.co.uk: Online ‘made a mockery of High Court’ in Baby P case
• Poynter Online: Tr.im’s shutdown – a warning about free services online

Tip of the day:

• Working with developers

#FollowJourn:

• @adamoxford/freelancer

On the Editors’ blog:

• The printing press versus Jesus… what year would you vote for?

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The AFP is reporting that two Associated Press journalists have been seriously wounded in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.

The agency has identified the pair as photographer Emilio Morenatti, 40, and Andi Jatmiko, 44.

Full story at this link…

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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has asked the government of Afghanistan ‘to set model standards for democracy if it wants upcoming elections in the country to be fair’, the organisation states in a release.

IFJ general secretary Aidan White spoke at  the Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association national assembly in Kabul at the weekend. He said:

“The political community and the government in particular must demonstrate a commitment to democracy by setting model standards when it comes to treatment of media. We need less pressure, more useful information and a wider recognition that pluralism bolstered by a free media system is key to helping citizens exercise their right to vote at election time.”

Full release at this link…

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A public meeting is to be held in London on July 13, hosted by Media Workers Against the War / Stop the War Coalition.

The Good War? Afghanistan in the media

Speakers include:

• Stephen Grey, investigative journalist embedded with British troops in Helmand and author: ‘Operation Snakebite: The Explosive True Story of an Afghan Desert Siege’, and ‘Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program’.

• Guy Smallman, photojournalist, recently returned from Helmand.

• Seumas Milne, columnist, the Guardian.

7pm, July 13: Friends Meeting House (small hall), 173 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ, opposite Euston station.

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An interesting read from investigative journalist Stephen Grey on the UK’s Ministry of Defence affecting media coverage of soldier’s deaths in Afghanistan by restricting access to conflict zones in Afghanistan.

“As in so many wars, truth seems to be the first casualty of this conflict. There has been a devastating breakdown of relations between many defence correspondents and officialdom, journalists say,” writes Grey.

“Almost all journalists travelling with British forces are ordered to email their copy to the military’s press officers in Helmand before publication. Many fear that negative coverage could mean trips back to the frontline are cancelled or delayed,” he cites as one issue.

Full story at this link…

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(Via @frontlineblog) Report on the declining number of female journalists in Afghanistan, forced out of the profession by threats; and the plight of female journalists in neighbouring Pakistan, who face restrictions because of their gender.

Full story at this link…

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In 2008 John D. McHugh, Frontline Club award winner, was commissioned by the Guardian to produce an online report on ‘Six months in Afghanistan’, using photography, short films, audio slideshows and blogging.

Tonight he will talk about and showcase some of his work for the project. Full details of the event can be read at this link.

Live streaming video by Ustream

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