Covering violence and trauma can be a psychologically hazardous enterprise. Journalists working on traumatic assignments often fear that, sooner or later, the work will leave its scars. But few have...
Laith Mushtaq
Laith Mushtaq is Executive Manager and Media Trainer of the Flair Media Consultancy based in Istanbul.
He was born in Baghdad in 1970. He studied history and then started working as a battle cameraman during his military service in Iraq. In 2003 he started his career in Al Jazeera during the American invasion of Iraq where he covered the first battle of Faluja. In 2004 he was sent by Al Jazeera to Afghanistan for six months. Between 2005 and 2009 he worked as a senior photographer and filmmaker in Africa, Chad, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Darfour and the Great Desert in Mauritania. He covered the Egyptian revolution and the battles in the western mountains of Libya. He worked on news and feature coverage, as a cameraman and field producer, in Sierra Leone in 2013 and Namibia in 2014. During his career in Al Jazeera Laith was exposed to execution and physical violence. He is active in giving lectures around the world, and has contributed to a variety of publications on the subject of media coverage of war.
Errors, lies, damned lies and the media How many times have journalists come across a breaking news story that is totally at odds with what they are witnessing first-hand in the field? Particularly...
War reporting - how not to get killed Rigorous planning is a must for any journalist who intends to cover a war zone or an area experiencing major unrest. The quality of work produced, not to menti...