Jerome Starkey

Who is Jerome Starkey?

Jerome Starkey is a British war correspondent and investigative journalist. He has been a vocal critic of military efforts to censor coverage of the War in Afghanistan and claimed he was blacklisted by the military.

His work on civilian casualties in The Times was decried by Nato's International Security Assistance Force but praised by other journalists and activists.

His exposé of a Special Forces night raid, in eastern Afghanistan led the commander of the United States' Joint Special Operations Command, Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, to visit the victims' family and apologize. McRaven offered to sacrifice a sheep at their door in an enactment of the ancient Pashtun ritual of Nanawatai. Jerome also worked on a successful campaign by The Independent newspaper to free student journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh after he was sentenced to death for blasphemy.

In 2010, Jerome was nearly killed during an embed with British troops in Helmand Province when an Improvised explosive device exploded fewer than 10 metres in front of him. The explosion killed Corporal David Barnsdale and injured two others.