Marked for Death: Dying for the Story in the World’s Most Dangerous Places, aka Murder Without Borders

by Terry Gould

Where do journalists find the guts to keep telling the truth in places where truth-telling will get them murdered? Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters sans frontières bring us the death toll from around the world, and that number is truly since 1992 more than 730 journalists have been killed - nearly three-quarters of them targeted and murdered. Over 85% of the fallen have been local journalists trying to unveil violence and corruption in their own back yards. Worse, 95% of the people who ordered their murder remain unpunished. Who are these journalists who have sacrificed literally everything for the story? Where did they find their courage? Investigative reporter Terry Gould traveled to the five most dangerous countries in which to be a journalist - Iraq, the Philippines, Russia, Colombia and Bangladesh. This audiobook presents Gould’s unforgettable portraits of seven murdered journalists who carried on despite death threats from terrorists, corrupt politicians, gangsters and paramilitary leaders. Gould brings us the lovers, the colleagues, the rivals, the critics and even the accused murderers of these courageous men and women, searching for the moment when each of his protagonists understood that they were willing to die in order to get a story out. He finds intriguing and complex reasons for such bravery. Their stories show how selflessly humans can love justice and their fellow citizens; how dogged and resourceful people can be in attempts to thwart injustice; how vital it is to show the defeated and the indifferent, as well as the powerful, and that there really are some things worth dying for. All of Gould’s subjects, no matter how fallible or flawed, “went to work each morning with the conviction that the calling of journalism was to defend the defenseless.” Gould honors their memories by “bringing their lives and the stories they worked on to light, telling truth to those who would murder truth-tellers.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, Journalism

Audible Audio

First published April 28, 2009

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's a shame that this book has received so little attention. It's really an important (and timely) subject matter, and is a well-written book to boot. Gould documents the lives of seven journalists who defended their homes and their right to the truth with their lives. The author is careful to paint a fair and honest picture of the seven journalists--although heroic in their journalistic pursuits, they weren't all saints (one, for example, had killed a man in his younger years). While some of the selections stood up better than others, I consider this to be a worthy read especially for those interested in world events or journalism.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please check my interesting review of this one here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did find the book interesting, I felt it did lose me sometimes in the telling of the story. It is not a book I would typically read, but yes others would find this book very interesting.

It did not surprise me that journalists would be killed for telling the truth in such countries as Columbia, Bangladesh, Iran, and Russia. I did find the one on the journalist in the Philippines a bit surprising, but then again it had to do with Marcos and the coup that overtook his regime. As for Russia, it seems many people (not just journalists) who do not see the way of the government always seem to have fatal accidents.

In all the book would be interesting for many, especially someone who follows the politics of these countries. The research that was done for this book is extensive and quite thorough.

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

El tema es muy interesante, en particular por el estado de violencia al que se enfrentan periodistas en muchos países del mundo. Conocer las vidas y motivaciones de algunos de esos periodistas, refrenda lo vital de su labor.

Las historias son cautivadoras, aunque el estilo con que escribe el autor es bastante parco.

[Rene Low · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook

Learning about those that lost their lives to exposing injustice is an important thing and this book does a good job of explaining the background and context of each journalist as it explores the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

[Huguette Larochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is so sad , that peoples get kill ,for telling the truth .

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

El periodismo es un oficio apasionante y temerario, esta es la idea que sustraigo de la lectura de este libro.

[Brittney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review comes with the disclaimer that I didn’t actually read this book in the traditional sense. I chose to take advantage of the Toronto Public Library’s inventory of audiobooks, largely because I’ve been sucked into several podcasts (blah blah, about 10 years late, blah blah, Serial, blah blah) and decided that I don’t mind listening to people tell stories. I have come to the conclusion that the way people tell stories in good podcasts and the way people tell stories in audiobooks is not the same. I would suggest that the storytelling skills of many audiobook narrators are a bit, well, flat and, while the droning can be soothing, I would suggest that it very quickly and easily becomes background noise. This is problematic when trying to absorb content.

All this being said, I found Terry Gould’s Marked for Death an interesting study on the challenges, censorship, threats, and violence faced by journalists in countries controlled by some of the world’s most oppressive regimes and how these regimes systematically controlled populations by controlling information. The journalists profiled, all of whom were murdered for their reporting, weren’t deterred by repeated threats on their lives or the knowledge that people in positions of power backed these threats. Their dedication was to truth telling, regardless of cost or consequence.

Out of context, I might not have thought much more about Marked for Death, but there were a few contributing factors that inspired me to “read” it—one being that I saw CITIZENFOUR, Laura Poitras’ documentary about the Edward Snowden leaks, which included footage of Snowden’s Hong Kong conversations with journalist Glenn Greenwald, and another being that one of the podcasts with which I have recently been taken is Jesse Brown’s Canadaland , in which he offers a critical examination of the Canadian media landscape. The big ideas presented in Marked for Death might seem under different circumstances to be “things that don’t happen here” but when viewed as part of the bigger picture of media and government here, it isn’t difficult to see how we are incrementally approaching common ground. The suppression and censorship of the media by the government in countries that we wouldn’t necessarily consider to be controlled by oppressive regimes erodes every citizen’s rights, not just the rights of those who report the news. The more we allow this chipping away, the closer we come to having no accountability for the powerful and no justice for the rest of us.

This isn’t high on my list of books to recommend to others but I did find it interesting insofar as I was already interested in the subject matter. Kudos, too, to Terry Gould as the research it entailed was no small undertaking and the effort and thought he put into that research shines through.

[Adam Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject of the book is interesting for so many reasons. These journalists recognized the dangers and yet continued their work each one with a unique justification or rationale. And what really blows your mind is that the people in the stories in this book represent only a tiny fraction of journalists who are murdered for what they have written on just about every continent.
The author has done a terrific job of discovering the facts and reconstructing the circumstances. Unfortunately his writing style is a burden on the reader. I would recommend this book due to the fascinating stories that hold your interest even though the writing itself is prosaic.

[Scott Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terry Gould's account of journalists who have been murdered as a reaction to their work is surprising. The statistic quoted in the opening chapter is 720 journalists since 1992. This is a staggering number of executions. While he only highlights a few stories, from Columbia, Russia, Bangladesh and Iran, it is evident that honest journalism is in now way a safe profession in many countries and regions around the world. By helping draw attention to this, Gould is raising awareness with a few to stemming to the tides of murder without sacrificing the need for free speech.

[Sidney Rodriguez]

The premise of the book is fantastic. However, the way it is written drove me crazy.



Each chapter is about a different journalist. The first page or two of each chapter would give you a synoposis of what the rest of the chapter would go into detail on. Those first pages didn't leave any cliffhangers. I felt like it was repeatative and that I could read the first couple of page of each chapter and know what happened with each journalist.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book about journalists who have been killed throughout the world. I hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about how dangerous being a journalist, and continuing to speak the true, is in so many places around the world. And that we so rarely think about or hear about it in North America.

[Post Hypnotic Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in the USA with a different title, "Marked for Death: Dying for the Story in the World's Most Dangerous Places." There are a few reviews of this important and timely book listed under the alternate title.

[Alicia]

Interesting subject matter, about journalists dying in countries like the Philippines, Columbia and Russia, but ultimately repetitive (it covers more than six journalists) and honestly, not very well written. Though it is non-fiction, that doesn't mean you have to ignore narrative flow completely.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chilling reading and an indictment of those countries mentioned where journalists seem to have been murdered with impunity for daring to report the truth. I was most moved by the final story of 'Solid Khalid' in Iraq.

[Matias · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 estrellas. Genial investigación e impresionantes y durísimas historias sobre los periodistas que, en todas partes del mundo han sido asesinados por el hecho de decir la verdad . Creo que es un libro que todo periodista debe leer.

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish this book. It was interesting and I learned a lot, but it was also very political and a bit difficult to read. Just over halfway through, I decided not to read anymore.