JAKARTA—The award-winning Pakistani journalist who met twice with the world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, the founding leader of the al-Qaeda terror group blamed for the 9/11 attacks on the United States, was among the presenters in the East Asian Regional Media Programme, which was concluded Thursday in this Indon capital.

During his presentation before 51 other senior journalists from the East Asian region, Hong Kong and Pakistan, Rahimullah Yusufzai called on fellow mediamen to preserve their own lives rather than risk death or injury when covering war, terror, insurrection and civil unrest events.

“You can’t put your life at risks,” he said even as he warned that all journalists should exercise caution in dealing with their sources, particularly in times of conflict.

But, “if you are invited and you are guaranteed that you’ll get a very good interview with somebody like Osama bin Laden or Mullah Umar, I think you can’t resist it, you have to take your chances. I have done that twice in 1998,” the Peshawar-based journalist told fellow colleagues from the East Asian region.

A recipient of numerous awards, the 55-year-old Yusufzai had a face-to-face interview with bin Laden in May and December, 1998. He is one of the few journalists who have been granted interview by the al Qaeda leader, whom he described as a “polite, quiet, very civilized, and shy” man.

He is also the first journalist to meet and interview Taliban religious leader, Mullah Omar whom he met 13 times since their first meeting in March 1995.

“You need to have the trust of the people you’re going with. Otherwise, you can be kidnapped or killed. I think you have to use your own judgment. That’s very important,” he said.

Currently serving as the resident of the Pakistani English daily, The News International in Peshawar and a senior analyst for the TV channel, Geo, Yusufzai also said it is still possible for journalists covering war, terror, insurrection and civil unrest events to serve as peacemaker. “You can bring peace,” he said in response to the question posed by the Manila Bulletin, noting that he once became a mouthpiece of peace during last year’s abduction of two Chinese engineers.

“The Chinese embassy was asking me to provide these Chinese hostages Chinese food and medicines.

They were in the custody of the Taliban militants for several months,” he said. “Sometimes, you get involved in these things, but you have to have some limits. You can’t cross limits, you have to do your job and don’t become a party and don’t be part of the story.”

He also noted that the local would keep on telling them that “the BBC can make war and BBC can make peace in Afghanistan .”

Yusufzai is also working for the BBC Radio, mostly for its language services in Urdu, Pashto, Hindi and English.

During his presentation, he laid down the dos and don’ts that journalists should observe when they cover conflict areas.

He said while exercising prudence in covering conflict, all journalists should depend on their instincts and “you have to know how to escape.”

“The area where you are going, you must be familiar to that area. You must have a good guide,” he said.

He said it is really important to keep in touch with the authorities when one decides to cover dangerous areas.

Yusufzai also presented the difficulties faced by journalists covering conflicts, including the lack of protection system, and limited access to the parties involved.

“Media organizations, they are happy if you go into the frontlines and you report the story, but they don’t want to send money on you. They don’t want to take care of you. For example, the cameramen who go into the frontlines in Pakistan and Afghanistan, they always say that the camera is insured, but the cameraman is not insured. The cameraman is at risks while the camera is very expensive and is insured,” he pointed out.

However, he said the situation is “improving” because foreign news organizations are “taking the lead” to provide a security blanket to their journalists and invest in human resources, which is being adopted by the local media.

Apart from the logistics, he said, the laws of respective conflict-stricken nations have hampered the journalists from covering extensively.

“We have this anti-terrorism law in Pakistan and also Afghanistan. You cannot really go far. You cannot interview militants. That is the law. Although no journalist has been charged or arrested for this reason. But this is the law, you should be careful,” Yusufzai said.

“You can’t really ignore the story. You have to write about the people who are really important in a sense. You can’t really ignore Mr. Bin Laden, Mullah Umar or the Taliban commanders because they are there, they exist, they have created a big problem for this country,” he said.