While driving home from Fishguard in the early hours of Sunday morning we listened to “From Our Own Correspondent” on the BBC World Service. These dispatches from resident journalists around the World are always fascinating, and have a ring of authenticity and truth about them which I find lacking in so much journalism.
Veteran correspondent John Simpson (yes, the first reporter to enter downtown Kabul after the Teleban were chased into the Afghanistan mountains) is always worth a listen and this latest piece did not disappoint.
Here’s a snippet from his piece below and the full item as an MP3 download.
On his return from Afghanistan, BBC world affairs editor John Simpson reveals how his attitude to covering stories about violence and suffering has changed.
“The idea that some civilians are decent and righteous, while others deserve everything they get, or else should not have been in the way, seems to me to be intolerable.
“I hope I never did think that attacks on civilians – any civilians – were justified but now I know for certain they are not.
“Having been through the first and second Gulf Wars, and watched the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999, I do not really care any longer what the cause is. It is the civilians on the receiving-end who matter.”
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