13 November 2001

WAR CLAIMS FIRST MEDIA CASUALTIES


The war in Afghanistan claimed its first media casualties last week when three reporters were killed in an ambush by Taliban forces, report the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters sans frontières (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On 11 November, Radio France International reporter Johanne Sutton, Radio Television Luxembourg journalist Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik, a freelance reporter for Germany's "Stern" magazine, were killed when the armoured personnel carrier (APC) on which they were traveling was fired upon.

They are the first journalists known to have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led attack against the Taliban regime began six weeks ago. "All of us send our heartfelt condolences to the families and colleagues of these three brave journalists," said CPJ.

According to CPJ, the three who died were among six journalists who were riding atop an APC driven by Northern Alliance forces near the city of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar Province in northeastern Afghanistan. The journalists were reporting on front-line fighting in the region when the APC was fired upon by Taliban forces. CPJ notes that a rocket-propelled grenade hit the APC, throwing some of the journalists off.

Three of the journalists – Véronique Rebeyrotte, a radio reporter for France Culture, "Sydney Morning Herald" correspondent Paul McGeough and Levon Sevunts, a reporter for the "Montreal Gazette", survived the attack, according to CPJ. An Afghan translator who was accompanying the journalists is reportedly missing.

IFJ calls on media organisations to "pull back from unsafe reporting of the Afghanistan war, and urges them not to send journalists into areas that are not secure. "They should not have been put at such risk. When the story is moving fast, journalists have to follow, but they must do so at a safe distance," says IFJ.

For more details, see www.cpj.org, www.ifj.org and www.rsf.fr. ">http://www.cpj.org">www.cpj.org, www.ifj.org and www.rsf.fr.



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Also from the Communiqué, 13 November 2001

INTERNATIONAL: COUNCIL OF EUROPE MOVES TO BAN INTERNET HATE SPEECH 13 November 2001 INTERNATIONAL: MEDIA GET BOOST FROM PINA 13 November 2001 INTERNATIONAL: EXPANDS LIST OF PRESS PREDATORS 13 November 2001 LIBERIA: PRESS UNION REVIVES MONTHLY MAGAZINE 13 November 2001 BULGARIA: IFJ URGES GENUINE REFORM FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING 13 November 2001 RWANDA: NEW PRESS LAW RAISES CONCERNS 13 November 2001 IRAN: FIFTY-TWO NEWSPAPERS SHUT DOWN SINCE 1997; 1,000 SATELLITE DISHES CONFISCATED 13 November 2001

Afghanistan

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