5 October 2005
RUMSFELD AGREES TO ANSWER MEDIA SAFETY CONCERNS
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has agreed to address concerns about the safety of journalists in Iraq following concerted lobbying by media organisations and press freedom groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, raised the issue of journalists detained and shot by American soldiers at a hearing with Rumsfeld and senior generals on 29 September 2005.
It came after Warner received copies of letters CPJ and Reuters had written to Rumsfeld, and a phone call from CPJ chairman and "Wall Street Journal" Managing Editor Paul Steiger.
Warner said Rumsfeld would take the matter under "immediate consideration." General George Casey, U.S. commander in Iraq, told the committee he would follow up the request. "It's an issue that we take very seriously. And what I will do when I get back to Baghdad is I'll get a few of the local journalists together and work through some of their concerns with them," Casey said.
Warner suggested that Casey meet with organisations that had brought the safety issues to the Senate committee's attention.
According to a recent CPJ report, the U.S. military has failed to fully investigate the killing of journalists by its forces in Iraq and to implement its own recommendations to improve media safety. CPJ says American troops have killed 13 journalists since the U.S.-led war began in March 2003. Several of the 13 deaths suggest indifference by U.S. soldiers to the presence of civilians, including members of the press.
The CPJ report notes that at least 40 other journalists and 21 media support staff have been killed covering the Iraqi conflict.
CPJ and other IFEX members, including Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), have repeatedly raised concerns about the safety of journalists in Iraq.
RSF has written to Rumsfeld calling for the release of five Iraqi journalists who are being held by American troops. The journalists are CBS News cameraman Abdel Amir Younes Hussein, Agence France Presse reporter Ammar Daham Naef Khalaf, Reuters cameramen Samer Mohamed Noor and Ali Omar Abrahem Al Mashadani, and Al-Arabiya correspondent Hameed Majed.
See:
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Iraq29sept05na.html
- CPJ Analysis of Journalists Killed in Iraq by U.S. Troops http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/Iraq/Js_killed_by_US_13sept05.html
- Rumsfeld to Probe Detentions, Shooting of Journalists: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1003/dailyUpdate.html
- War Reporters Face Serious Danger:
http://www.newssafety.com/stories/guardian/abc30.htm
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=3395&Language=EN
- Human Rights Watch on Torture by U.S. Troops: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/25/usint11776.htm
- International PEN:
http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/dev/viewArticles.asp?findID_=377
- IPI: http://www.freemedia.at
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15202
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