The debate on the role of journalists in the war against terrorism is an interesting one and it featured at the session on Tuesday June 9 at the International Press Institute IPI Congress in Helsinki. The moderator was an accomplished international journalist and commentator, Curtis Brainard, Editor of The Observatory, Colombia Journalism Review, Colombia University, New York.

He began by asking 'should journalists who provide the public with the information they need to understand the complexities of the battle against terrorism, talk to terrorists? Do they do so at the risk of becoming the pawns in the terrorists' public relations campaigns? Where should journalists draw the line?' On the panel that responded to these questions were Alan Johnston a BBC UK, and Hamid Mir, the Executive Editor of the Geo TV, Islamabad, Pakistan. Giuliana Sgrema is the correspondent of II Manifesto in Rome and Peter Bergen a television and print journalist. All the panel members had considerable knowledge of the topic. Alan Johnston is the BBC correspondent who was kidnapped and held for nearly four months by a jihadi organisation in Gaza in 2004. Alan had served as a war correspondent before, when he was the BBC correspondent for Kabul, Afghanistan at the time when the Taliban movement was fighting to take complete control of Afghanistan. He also served as a correspondent in Tashkent between 1993 and 95. Hamid Mir has interviewed Osama Bin Laden three times for three Pakistani newspapers. The third interview was the first Osama bin Laden gave any journalist after 9/11. Guilina Sgrena is a war correspondent who went to Iraq at the beginning of the war to cover the bombing of Baghdad where she was abducted by insurgents in 2005 and was kept in captivity for one month. After her release, she and the Italian military intelligence officers who helped to secure her release were attacked by US forces under friendly fire.

One of the officers was killed and Guiliana and another were wounded. As a war correspondent, she had covered several conflicts such as the Algerian civil war, the Somali and Afghanistan conflicts. Peter Bergen has written about Al Qaeda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and counterterrorism for major US and international newspapers. As a CNN producer, he produced the Osama bin Laden's first television interview and has written two books on Osama bin Laden Holy War Inc: Inside the Secret world of Bin Laden and The Osama bin Laden I know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda's Leader published in 2001and 2006 respectively. As I was reading the brief on the panellists contained in the conference bag and watching the panellists taking their seats, a participant sitting next to me whispered that IPI could not have found a more interesting group to discuss such a controversial topic. The session which was well attended, began with the moderator wondering if it was good news judgement for Aljazeera to carry a story about Osama Bin Laden five minutes after the arrival of the United States President Barack Obama in Saudi Arabia. He cited Margaret Thatcher, former UK Prime Minister's caution to the media not to raise the profile of terrorists and glamorise them by giving publicity to them and their activities. According to Thatcher, 'publicity is the oxygen for terrorists' and if they are staved of oxygen they would melt into irrelevance. He asked the panellists to respond drawing examples their own experiences and interactions with terrorists. Peter Bergen said while it can not be disputed that terrorists do benefit from the media publicity they receive, it is also important to note that the media has the mandate to report on human activities and the activities of terrorists fall squarely within this realm so events like 9/11 must be given full publicity. Terrorists are newsmakers and their activities should be reported, adding that 9/11 is the most watched event. On the benefits derived by Al Qaeda from the publicity, he said the coverage of 9/11 did more harm to the terrorists because many people condemned the attack and those who supported them and organised demonstrations were only about 30,000 in Jakarta, Indonesia and about the same number in Karachi in Pakistan. In comparison, the anti US war in Iraq demonstrations drew hundreds of thousands in several world capitals.

In relating his experience, Alan Johnston said 'the campaign to free me was amazing because it generated support across the world; while I felt buried alive in my dark cell lying on the floor, the world rallied to my cause'. He said his period in captivity with the group the Army of Islam was the most difficult part of his life and related how he was treated. He said although he was not beaten or manhandled by his captors, some treated him like an enemy. One of his guards never spoke to him but communicated with him using sign language.

He said he met the leader of the group only once and they had a conversation that lasted about twenty minutes. He was lying on the floor in his room when the key turned and a huge man who wore a mask was ushered in. He asked him what religion he practiced and when he said he was a Christian, he asked Alan if he was also a crusader like George Bush. Alan said 'I told him I was not a crusader but only a reporter and how could I be a crusader since I had been reporting from the refugee camp in Gaza. The little respite I had was a small transistor radio my guards gave me which I used to monitor the campaign for my release particularly by the BBC'. The positive thing that came out of his stay in captivity according to Alan was the opportunity he had to interact with the lower rank of the people in different places he was moved to by his guards. 'I could see that these were people who had lost their religion and forgotten about Islam's compassion."Alan's view reinforced my regrets that some Muslims do struggle hard to give Islam a bad name by using it to rationalise their resort to violence which is then directed at innocent people.

Guilian Sgrena in her response said, media coverage of terrorists was extensively discussed in Italy when the Red Brigades were at the height of their activities and distributed a lot of press releases. There was a prolonged debate on whether or not the media should publicise their activities but the Italian media did not reach a consensus.