Anita McNaught

Anita McNaught's picture
Anita McNaught
Correspondent | Iraq
Biography

Anita McNaught has been a journalist for more than 20 years, living and working all over the Pacific, Europe, South East Asia and now the Middle East. She was educated in the UK and trained in television in New Zealand.

In 2007 and 2008 she was mainly based in Iraq, and is now working out of Istanbul, Turkey. Anita says her base is proving the most extraordinary vantage point to cover the new power dynamics of this century.

Latest posts by Anita McNaught

By Anita McNaught in Middle East on March 12th, 2012
Image grab taken from a YouTube video, allegedly shows a house on fire after shelling by government forces in Idlib.

Winter still clings to the ancient cultivated hillsides of the northern Syrian province of Idlib. Nights are chillingly cold; mornings alternate between mist and feeble sun. Under the gnarled olive trees, the soil is naked and neatly raked.

Tens of thousands of trees in rows follow the contours of the hills to the horizon and beyond. Around here, the olives are usually harvested in November, but some local families have only just begun to try to take their crop. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to the harvest this year.

All the old rhythms and routines have been disrupted. People don’t venture out, most shops are shuttered. Petrol for transport and heating is running short. Cell phones no longer work, there is no internet and locals warn the old landlines are monitored. Families listen carefully to traffic on the roads, alert to anything unusual, to anything that sounds "military".

By Anita McNaught in Africa on December 15th, 2010

File 4152
Mr Policeman peers up Volkan the cameraman's lens to see if we are hiding anything there [Photo; Anita McNaught]

 

We wanted striking, distinctive images of  local people in Juba registering to vote in the January 11 referendum. And there they were, on a scrubby football field named "Home and Away", not far from our lodgings. It was the day all police had been ordered to register and dozens were lined up under a tree in bright turquoise uniforms.

So we drove up to the registration desk, piled out of the car and I went over to ask for the "person in charge".

That’s when the trouble started.

A plain-clothed officer took our accreditation documents from us, and took his time studying them. As with so many of the security people in Juba, he did not remove his mirrored sunglasses, and he did not smile. Instead, he began to issue demands.

By Anita McNaught in Africa on November 27th, 2010
Photo by Anita McNaught

The Sudanese authorities are "careful" with foreign press. And – returning the favour – we are fastidiously careful back.

Visas to enter, a permit to be there, a third to practise the job. A licence for camera equipment and a Ministry of Information "meeter-&-greeter" at the airport to expedite its thorough inspection.

Then you apply for another permit to fly south to the areas controlled by the GOSS – Government of Southern Sudan – and, after a day or two, the Khartoum government office usually says: "Yes". 

And you get a generous glass of sweet tea while the paperwork passes from desk to desk.

It wasn't always like this.

Filming or writing about the fighting in the south could get you blacklisted by Khartoum. But these days the southern struggle is internationally legitimised, and the country poised on the brink of a messy and very public divorce.

Khartoum seems to be resigned to the world's curiosity.

Tags: Sudan
By Anita McNaught in Europe on September 12th, 2010
Reuters photo

What event in Turkey today has captured public attention, hijacked the political agenda, and left Turks trembling in hope, fear and anticipation?

It’s not the referendum on proposed reforms to the country’s Constitution. It’s Turkey winning through to the final of the World Basketball championship.

Tonight they play - who else? - the United States.

The referendum campaign has been lively, to say the least. Plenty of friendly and unfriendly invective from both sides. Lots of flag waving. But when the street outside our hotel lit up at just before midnight last night, I knew something far more important than politics was afoot.

By Anita McNaught in Middle East on March 12th, 2010

It's difficult to convey in words quite how remarkable a place the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC ) is at the moment.

Its guiding principles – openness, transparency, accessibility – prevail, even under the pressure of this critical moment in Iraqi politics.

These moments, you will understand, have too often been marked by violence here. But at IHEC, they are marked by industriousness.

The place is like a beehive. Row upon row of vote counters, checking sheets, entering data onto computers, conferring over numbers, unpacking sealed envelopes.. Mostly young Iraqis, mostly men but with a sprinkling of women, engrossed in the work, humming away.

They are, however, distractable by a TV crew – who isn’t? – and, over their dinner break (so as to minimise our disruption of this vital moment in Iraqi history) they came to talk with us.

Al Jazeera Live

Biography

Anita McNaught's picture
Anita McNaught
Correspondent
Anita McNaught has more than 20 years journalism experience.

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