User:Crtew/Battle of Mogadishu entry

Adopt a Journalist assignment

 * Class: Comm 192 (Fall 2012)
 * I'm writing my first article about the journalists who covered the Battle of Mogadishu and those who died at the Attack on safe house from Somalia for Battle of Mogadishu (1993) and Dan Eldon. (See: List of journalists killed during the Somali civil war)

Expand on the Battle of Mogadishu (1993) and the murder of Dan Eldon, Hos Maina, Hansi Kraus and Anthony Macharia and the lone survivor Mohammed Shaffi. Movie rights have been purchased to make a biopic of Eldon.

On July 12, 1993, a United States-led operation was launched on what was believed to be a safe house where Aidid was hiding in Mogadishu. The operation would lead to the deaths of four journalists – Dan Eldon, Hos Maina, Hansi Kraus and Anthony Macharia – who were killed by angry Mogadishu mobs when they arrived to cover the incident, which presaged the Battle of Mogadishu. The Battle of Mogadishu,more commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down was part of Operation Gothic Serpent and was fought on October 3 and 4, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Dan Eldon, (September 14, 1970-July 12, 1992), an English photojournalist working for Reuters; Hansi Krauss, a German photographer with the Associated Press; Hosea Maina, a Kenyan photographer working for Reuters; and Anthony Macharia, a Kenyan soundman working for Reuters, were killed when a crowd, angered by a the death of more than 70 Somalis in an aerial attack on General Mohamed Farah Aidid's command post, set upon them wielding rocks, clubs, and guns. The four journalists, as well as Mohamed Shaffi, another Kenyan soundman for Reuters Television, were invited to view the damage after the attack and were escorted to the scene when the crowd turned on them. Shaffi, who had begun filming the carnage while Somalis were searching for dead and wounded bodies in the wreckage, was roughed up and shot by gunmen as he fled. Shaffi managed to escape when an unknown Somali told him to get in his truck and drove him to El-Sahafi Hotel, where reporters in Mogadishu were staying. Shaffi was treated for two bullet wounds.

From Dan Eldon's Wikipedia page: "It was announced in the New York Times on 28 December 2007, that Eldon will be the focus of a biopic entitled The Journey Is The Destination. Bronwen Hughes will direct the screenplay written by Jan Sardi. Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame is cast as Dan Eldon. Filming will be in Kenya. By 2010 there had been no filming, but Julia Roberts' company Red Om Films is now intending to start production."

Personal

 * CPJ has a page dedicated to each of the dead
 * Black Hawk Down
 * Human Rights Watch
 * See Dan Eldon's website and this resource page:
 * Tribute