21 June 2006
RSF DOCUMENTS PLIGHT OF JOURNALISTS DETAINEED AT U.S. BASES
Among the 400 or so detainees being held at the U.S.-controlled army base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a journalist who works for the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera. Cameraman Sami Al-Hajj has been detained without charge since 13 June 2002. His lawyer says he has been tortured and has suicidal tendencies, and needs treatment for throat cancer. Al-Hajj is the only remaining journalist being held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo or in Iraq.
Al-Hajj's plight is one of several cases documented in a report by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), which examines U.S. treatment of journalists who have been detained at army bases such as Guantanamo and Camp Bucca in Iraq.
Other cases include CBS News cameraman Abdel Amir Yunes Hussain, who was held at Camp Bucca from April 2005 to May 2006; Majeed Hameed, a stringer for Reuters and Al-Arabiya; and Samer Mohamed Noor and Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashadani, two Reuters cameramen.
The report, "Where the United States Imprisons Journalists", can be downloaded here: http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/RWB_Iraq_USA_LR.pdf
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