1 October 2003
IFEX MEMBERS CONDEMN ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS
Five IFEX members have voiced concerns this week over the safety of journalists in Iraq, following a bomb attack outside a Baghdad hotel housing the offices of an American television network and recent attacks involving US soldiers against journalists.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a bomb attack that occurred on 25 September outside the Al-Aike Hotel, which shattered windows and injured National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) News sound operator David Moodie. Moodie was one of a dozen NBC employees staying at the hotel. While NBC had not received any threats prior to the attack, its journalists were the only residents at the hotel, CPJ notes.
Meanwhile, RSF and CPJ joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI) and Human Rights Watch in expressing dismay over the findings of a US military investigation into the death of Reuters camera operator Mazen Dana. A Pentagon spokesperson announced last week that the American soldier who accidentally shot and killed Dana on 17 August "acted within the rules of engagement" and was not responsible, reports RSF. While regretting the incident, the military did not release its full report to the public.
IFJ called it a scandalous denial of justice "that will only reinforce demands for changes to international rules to provide more protection for journalists and media staff in conflict areas." It called for an independent inquiry into Dana's death.
Dana was killed while filming outside the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, where six Iraqis were killed by a mortar attack the previous day. The US military claims that the soldier who shot him mistook his camera for a grenade launcher, RSF says. Dana's colleagues at Reuters say it would have been impossible in broad daylight to confuse the two. American soldiers had also granted Dana permission to film in the area, notes CPJ.
Human Rights Watch highlighted other incidents in which US forces in Iraq were putting the lives of journalists at risk. On 18 September, Associated Press journalists Karim Kadhim and Tarek al-Issawi narrowly escaped death after coming under fire from US tanks while reporting on attacks against American troops in Khaldiya. And on 1 September, Ghaith Abd al-Ahad, a news assistant for the "New York Times," said he was handcuffed and thrown to the ground by US soldiers after being stopped at a military checkpoint.
Index on Censorship notes that with up to 60 U.S. soldiers killed and hundreds more injured in vigilante attacks that have erupted since the end of the Iraqi war, morale among American troops in Iraq has hit rock bottom. "To journalists on the ground, the principal cause of Dana's death appears to be combat stress - the cumulative effect of loss of morale, exhaustion and the constant tension brought on by the fear of a hit-and-run attacker emerging from a crowd or a parked car."
Visit these links:
- IFEX: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/222/
- Index on Censorship on "Stressed Out" US Troops: http://www.indexonline.org/news/20030818_iraq.shtml
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