Jerome Starkey

Starkey grew up in London and won an academic scholarship to attend Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/struck-by-a-rocket-that-killed-his-brother-boy-brings-out-the-best-in-man/cid/324792|title=Struck by a rocket that killed his brother, boy brings out the best in man|website=www.telegraphindia.com|access-date=2019-11-01}}

After graduating from Newcastle University with a degree in English literature{{Cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-106280707/an-extra-degree-of-debt|title="An Extra Degree of Debt" - The Journal (Newcastle, England), August 5, 2003|access-date=1 November 2019|archive-date=1 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101144036/https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-106280707/an-extra-degree-of-debt|url-status=dead}} he joined The Sun in 2003 as a graduate trainee.{{Cite web|url=http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/despatches-from-the-front-line-6451466.html|title=Despatches from the front line|date=2011-10-07|website=Evening Standard|access-date=2019-11-01}}

In 2006 he moved to Kabul, Afghanistan to write propaganda for Nato's International Security Assistance Force{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/09/afghanistan-nato|title=Dispatches from the Afghan front|last=Satterlee|first=Saundra|date=2008-06-09|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0261-3077}} (Isaf). He served with the Combined Joint Psy-Ops Taskforce (CJPOTF) which produced a fortnightly newspaper called Sada-e Azadi, or Voice of Freedom in Dari. He resigned after six months, complaining that the newspaper was "terrible". Later he wrote in The Times how Sada-e Azadi was sold by the kilogram as scrap before it could reach readers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/germany/berlin/natos-voice-is-stifled-as-propaganda-newspaper-ends-up-as-food-wrapping-td3dcwl2jcv|title=Nato's voice is stifled as propaganda newspaper ends up as food wrapping|first=Jerome|last=Starkey|date=2009-11-12|work=The Times|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0140-0460}}

Starkey returned to Kabul as a freelance journalist. From 2008 until 2010 he worked for a range of broadcasters and newspapers including Sky News, France 24, The Scotsman and The Independent. At The Independent he led a successful campaign to free a student journalist{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/free-at-last-student-in-hiding-after-karzais-intervention-1782909.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/free-at-last-student-in-hiding-after-karzais-intervention-1782909.html |archive-date=8 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Free at last: Student in hiding after Karzai's intervention|author=Kim Sengupta in Kabul|date=22 October 2011|work=The Independent}} Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Starkey claimed that he was black-listed by the military in Afghanistan as a result of his work on civilian casualties.{{cite web|url=http://www.stripes.com/blogs/ombudsman/ombudsman-1.8931/reporter-complains-of-blacklisting-in-afghanistan-1.8946|title=Reporter complains of blacklisting in Afghanistan|work=Stars and Stripes}}http://www.truth-out.org/where-are-this-wars-heroes-military-and-journalistic57406 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212172612/https://www.truth-out.org/where-are-this-wars-heroes-military-and-journalistic57406 |date=12 December 2010 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/rethink-afghanistan-why-i_b_527439.html#|title=Rethink Afghanistan: Independent Media Stands Up to Pentagon Propaganda|date=6 April 2010|work=The Huffington Post}}

In 2010 his investigation into a Night Raid on Narang, in Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan, led NATO's International Security Assistance Force to admit it had killed eight schoolboys by mistake.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/nato-admits-that-deaths-of-8-boys-were-a-mistake-6hbmv3ljmj6|title=Nato admits that deaths of 8 boys were a mistake|first=Jerome|last=Starkey|date=2010-02-25|work=The Times|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0140-0460}}

The previous year he linked the newly formed Marine Special Operations Command (MASROC) to three of the worst civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan's recent history{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rumsfelds-renegade-unit-blamed-for-afghan-deaths-1685704.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220608/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rumsfelds-renegade-unit-blamed-for-afghan-deaths-1685704.html |archive-date=8 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Rumsfeld's renegade unit blamed for Afghan deaths|date=2009-05-16|website=The Independent|access-date=2019-11-01}} including the Granai Airstrike in Bala Balouk, the Azizabad Airstrike in Herat province and the Shinwar Massacre in Nangahar province.

In 2010, together with his colleagues Shoib Najafizada and Jeremy Kelly, Starkey exposed a cover-up by US Special Forces after an operation known as the Raid on Khataba{{cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7092604.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100531180515/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7092604.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=31 May 2010|title=Login}}{{Cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2016/06/01/pentagon-special-ops-killing-of-pregnant-afghan-women-was-appropriate-use-of-force/|title=Pentagon: Special Ops Killing of Pregnant Afghan Women Was "Appropriate" Use of Force: Pentagon: Special Ops Killing of Pregnant Afghan Women Was "Appropriate" Use of Force|last=Scahill|first=Jeremy|date=2016-06-01|website=The Intercept|access-date=2019-11-01}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghans-us-troops-covered-up-civilian-deaths/|title=Afghans: U.S. Troops "Covered-Up" Civilian Deaths|website=www.cbsnews.com|access-date=2019-11-01}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/nato-covered-up-botched-night-raid-in-afghanistan-that-killed-five-fc9n5g92gbj|title=Nato 'covered up' botched night raid in Afghanistan that killed five|first=Jerome|last=Starkey|date=2010-03-13|work=The Times|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0140-0460}} which inspired the Oscar-nominated documentary Dirty Wars.

During the raid, on 12 February 2010, unidentified special forces soldiers killed five innocent people including two pregnant women, a teenage girl engaged to be married and two brothers who worked for the local government in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan. All of the victims were from the same family. Initially the soldiers said the women were victims of a triple honour killing.{{Cite web|url=http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/12/bound-gagged-bodies-of-women-found/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214114916/http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/12/bound-gagged-bodies-of-women-found/|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 February 2010|title=Bodies believed to be 'honor killing' victims|access-date=2019-11-01}} They said they discovered the women's bodies "tied up, gagged and killed"{{Cite web|url=https://www.dvidshub.net/news/45240/joint-force-operating-gardez-makes-gruesome-discovery|title=Joint force operating in Gardez makes gruesome discovery|website=DVIDS|access-date=2019-11-01}} and that the dead men were insurgents.

When Starkey challenged Nato's account they accused him of lying.{{Cite web | url=http://www.military-world.net/Afghanistan/3502.html | title=ISAF Rejects Cover up Allegation | Military-World Website| date=24 January 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/asia/06afghan.html|title=Afghan Investigators Say U.S. Troops Tried to Cover Up Evidence in Botched Raid|last1=Oppel Jr|first1=Richard A.|date=2010-04-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-11-01|last2=Wafa|first2=Abdul Waheed|issn=0362-4331}} However, four weeks later William H. McRaven, the commander of America's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), admitted his soldiers were responsible.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/us-army-chief-begs-afghans-to-forgive-k9lkmmr5cjx|title=US army chief begs Afghans to forgive|first=Jerome|last=Starkey|date=2010-04-09|work=The Times|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0140-0460}} McRaven travelled to the family's compound, outside Gardez and offered to sacrifice a sheep outside their door in a ritual act of Nanawatai, to seek their forgiveness.{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/special-forces-apologize-afghan-civilian-deaths-sheep/story?id=10320603|title=Apologizing for Afghan Deaths With Sheep?|website=ABC News|access-date=2019-11-01}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0408/US-military-offers-sheep-in-apology-for-Afghanistan-deaths|title=US military offers sheep in apology for Afghanistan deaths|date=2010-04-08|work=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0882-7729}}

In 2010, Jerome was nearly killed during an embed with British troops in Helmand Province when an Improvised explosive device (IED) exploded fewer than 10 metres in front of him.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/final-fatal-step-of-a-really-brilliant-bloke-7bzg60s2n7h|title=Final, fatal step of 'a really brilliant bloke'|newspaper=The Times|date=21 October 2010}}{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/10/22/30-feet-from-the-brutal-reality-of-the-afghan-war-death-of-a-soldier-115875-22650096/|title=30 feet from the brutal reality of the Afghan war: Death of a soldier|author=mirror Administrator|date=22 October 2010|work=mirror}} The explosion, inside a designated safe area which had recently been cleared by the Royal Engineers, killed Corporal David Barnsdale{{cite web|url=http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/CorporalDavidBarnsdaleKilledInAfghanistan.htm|title=Corporal David Barnsdale killed in Afghanistan}} and injured two others. The British army tried to censor his account on the grounds that it was too graphic. Senior officers, who were not at the scene, claimed the bomb was not inside the safe area.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/blast-that-killed-british-soldier-was-in-area-cleared-of-bombs-pmmlvh7979x|title=Blast that killed British soldier was in area cleared of bombs|date=2011-07-12|work=The Times|access-date=2019-11-01|issn=0140-0460}}

In 2012 The Times posted Starkey to Nairobi, Kenya and appointed him Africa Correspondent.{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/The-Times-reporter-Jerome-Starkey-locked-up-/539546-3480806-ct79pm/index.html|title=British journalist held overnight at JKIA|date=December 9, 2016|website=Business Daily|access-date=2019-11-01}}

He was deported from Nairobi in 2017{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.ug/british-journalist-detained-without-charge-kenya/|title=British journalist deported from Kenya|date=2016-12-10|website=The Independent Uganda|access-date=2019-11-01}}{{Cite web|url=http://westminsterworld.com/award-winning-british-journalist-deported-from-kenya-after-unexplained-detention/|title=Award-winning British journalist deported from Kenya after unexplained detention|date=2016-12-12|website=Westminster World|access-date=2019-11-01}} as a result of his work. The government of Uhuru Kenyatta gave no official explanation.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/times-reporter-deported-from-nairobi-after-night-in-cell-q7ph88fwc|title=Kenya expels Times reporter after night in cells|newspaper=The Times|access-date=2019-11-01|date=10 December 2016}}

Starkey won the Frontline Club award for excellence{{cite web|url=http://www.journalism.co.uk/news-events-awards/times-afghanistan-correspondent-wins-frontline-club-excellence-award/s14/a541626/|title=Times Afghanistan correspondent wins Frontline Club excellence award|date=22 November 2010}} in 2010, and the Kurt Schork memorial prize in 2011.{{Cite web |url=http://iwpr.net/raise-awareness/winners-2011-kurt-schork-awards |title=Winners of the 2011 Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism - Institute for War and Peace Reporting |access-date=9 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604184728/http://iwpr.net/raise-awareness/winners-2011-kurt-schork-awards |archive-date=4 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|title=2011 Kurt Schork Memorial Awards winners are named|url=http://www.ksmfund.org/files/newsrelease-2011-winners.pdf|access-date=2021-08-31}}

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Category:English war correspondents

Category:English male journalists

Category:The Times people

Category:Living people

Category:1981 births

Category:Alumni of Newcastle University

Category:People educated at Stowe School