In early March, , with the US invasion imminent, major media companies pulled their correspondents out of Baghdad. A handful of intrepid independent reporters stuck around, among them the young Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad.
Seierstad got her uppstart in journalism in the s covering the war in Chechnya, where she developed strong views on the proper way to report on a conflict. “It’s hard to cover a war when you have no idea what it looks like down there, you have no opinion of the people, you haven’t met them, and you’re fed lies and propaganda,” Asne explains. “I really had to go and see for myself.” She has since applied this approach to her reporting on the conflicts in Serbia, Kosovo, and Afghanstan, and her first book, The Bookseller of Kabul, was an account of life in Afghanistan before, during, and after the removal of the Taliban.
Seierstad reported for various media outlets from Baghdad from January through March Her new boo
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With Their Backs To The World: Portraits From Serbia, by Asne Seierstad, translated by Sindre Kartvedt
Åsne Seierstad
A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, published by Virago
| | Biography: ÅSNE SEIERSTAD The Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad's second book, The Bookseller of Kabul, has now been translated into a total of 29 languages. Thanks in part to its selection by Richard & Judy's book club on Channel 4, it topped the non-fiction charts in Britain. Seierstad was born in in Lillehammer to Froydis Guldahl, author of a bestselling feminist book for girls, and Dag Seierstad, a political scientist. She left home to study Russian and philosophy in Oslo. Before becoming Norwegian television's best-known war correspondent and a bestselling author, Seierstad learnt Chinese and worked as a Russian translator. She covered conflicts in Chechnya, Serbia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, where she lived in Kabul with the family who in • Bookseller of Kabul author Åsne Seierstad: 'It's not possible to write a neutral story'A version of the following correction is due to appear in the Guardian on 14 August A story reported on the outcome of a lawsuit lodged in Oslo against Åsne Seierstad, author of The Bookseller of Kabul, by a member of the Afghan family portrayed in the book. The story said Seierstad was found guilty of defamation, but that was not so: the finding was invasion of privacy. The piece also said she was found guilty of "negligent journalistic practices". To clarify: the judge did cite negligence, but there was no guilty finding on a charge of negligence, as our phrasing might have implied. Contrary to the piece, legal fees were not awarded against Åsne Seierstad and her publisher Cappelen Damm; the judge is to rule on fees later. The article also said the book's revelations of personal details caused several members of the Afghan family to move to Pakistan and Canada. We should have m
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