13 July 2005

Alert

Filmmaker and cameraman released after being held for 54 days


Incident details

Cyrus Kar, Farshid Faraji

media worker(s)

released

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(RSF/IFEX) - On 10 July 2005, the United States (US) army freed Cyrus Kar, an American documentary filmmaker of Iranian origin, and Farshid Faraji, his Iranian cameraman, after holding them for 54 days at a US base in Iraq.

Kar entered Iraq from Iran to film material for a documentary about Darius the Great, founder of the Persian Empire. He and Faraji were arrested on 19 May near Balad (70 km north of Baghdad) by the Iraqi army, who handed them over to the coalition forces. The US army then asked the FBI to investigate them. The FBI finally reported on 4 July that it had no files on the two men.



Source

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

More on this case

IFJ calls for independent probe into three media killings involving US troops 4 July 2005 RSF calls for investigation into deaths of television producer and journalist; filmmaker and cameramen arrested 30 June 2005

Iraq

Legislative elections turn into nightmare for independent and opposition journalists 11 March 2010 Democracy and free expression under threat in Iraqi Kurdistan 1 March 2010 Journalist kidnapped 18 February 2010 Independent journalists harassed, attacked in Kurdistan election run-up 17 February 2010 US military releases Reuters photographer after 17 months in detention 11 February 2010


 
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