14 April 2004
JOURNALISTS KIDNAPPED; US URGED TO DIVULGE INFORMATION ON REPORTERS KILLED IN 2003
As violence in Iraq continues to dominate news headlines, IFEX members are highlighting the plight of five journalists whose whereabouts are unknown and the impunity surrounding the deaths of seven journalists killed during the war in 2003.
Japanese freelance photo-journalist Soichiro Koriyama has been held hostage since 8 April 2004 by a group called the "Mujahadeen Brigades," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) report. He was abducted along with two other Japanese nationals. The hostage takers have threatened to burn them alive unless the Japanese government withdraws its troops from Iraq.
CPJ reports that French journalist Alexandre Jordanov, who works for Capa Television, was abducted near Baghdad on 11 April while filming clashes between Iraqi insurgents and U.S. troops. He was released on 14 April.
Meanwhile, three Czech journalists are missing. Reporter Michal Kubal and camera operator Petr Klima, who work for Czech Television, and Vit Pohanka, a journalist for Czech Radio, have not been seen since 11 April, CPJ reports. Kubal and Klima had left Baghdad that morning in a vehicle headed towards Amman, Jordan. Pohanka may have been traveling with them.
IFJ notes that several other foreign journalists and media personnel were briefly abducted last week. They included "The Times" reporter Stephen Farrell and freelance journalist Orly Halpern, who were released after convincing their kidnappers that they were not soldiers. They had been traveling between the towns of Ramadi and Falluja. An Associated Press photographer and his driver were also briefly detained in the southern city of Kut by militiamen loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
While attention has focused on the dangerous conditions for journalists in Iraq, some IFEX members have also voiced dissatisfaction over the U.S. military's silence regarding the deaths of seven journalists killed in so-called "friendly fire" incidents last year. The victims were Terry Lloyd, Fred Nerak, Hussein Osman, Taras Protsyuk, José Couso, Mazen Dana and Tarek Ayyoub.
RSF has thrown its support behind a letter, signed by the families of six of the journalists, which was sent last week to members of the U.S. Congress. The letter says U.S. forces have refused to disclose adequate information to them about the circumstances surrounding the journalists' deaths. The families say they are "deeply dismayed and grieved" by the "silence, omissions and falsehoods" of U.S. authorities, who have also refused to lay responsibility on the shoulders of its troops.
Last week, IFJ held protests in several cities to demand that U.S. authorities make public their inquiries into the journalists' deaths.
Visit these links:
- IFJ Report on the Journalists' Deaths:
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?index=2328&Language=EN
- Letter from Families of Slain Journalists: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9729
- CPJ's Conflict in Iraq Report: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2003/gulf03/gulf03.html
(Image Courtesy of RSF)
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