20 September 2006
THREE JOURNALISTS KILLED IN A WEEK, PULITZER-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER DETAINED
It has been a bloody week for journalists in Iraq, with three murdered by gunmen since 12 September 2006, report the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
Ahmed Riyadh al-Karbouli, a correspondent for Baghdad TV, was gunned down by armed assailants in the town of Ramadi on 18 September 2006. Al-Karbouli, 25, had received numerous death threats from insurgents over the past four months, noted CPJ.
Baghdad TV is owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni political group that joined the U.S.-backed Iraqi government earlier this year. Al-Karbouli worked at Baghdad TV for two years covering security and the plight of Ramadi residents. His articles reportedly offended some insurgents in Ramadi who felt they were being criticised. A month ago, gunmen stormed into Al-Karbouli's house and threatened him in front of his family.
In two separate incidents on 12 September, photographer Safa Isma'il Enad and journalist Hadi Anawi al-Joubouri were killed. Enad, 31, was shot by gunmen in a store in Baghdad's Ur neighbourhood, reported CPJ, IFJ and RSF. He was a freelance photographer for several media organisations, including the newspaper "Al-Watan", which was closed two months ago due to financial difficulties. The newspaper is affiliated with the Iraqi National Movement, a political party that receives funds from the United States.
Al-Joubouri, 56, was a journalist and representative of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate in the eastern province of Diyala. He was killed while driving between Baquba and Khalis, north of Baghdad.
While CPJ, RSF and IFJ have different statistics on the numbers of journalists and media support staff killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led occupation in 2003, the most conservative figure - from RSF - puts the number at 107.
The majority of journalists and media support staff killed are Iraqis, who face added pressures that foreign reporters have not had to encounter. CPJ notes that in the last 18 months, seven Iraqi journalists have been detained for weeks or months by U.S. forces on suspicion of links to insurgents. No charges have been proven in any of these cases.
The most recent case concerns Bilal Hussein, a freelance photojournalist for the Associated Press (AP) who has been held without charge by U.S. military forces since April. Hussein is an Iraqi citizen who began working for AP in September 2004. One of his photos was part of an AP series that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for breaking news photography.
AP made public Hussein's arrest after five months of talks with U.S. authorities to obtain his release proved fruitless. "[Hussein] either needs to be charged or released. We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure," says AP President Tom Curley.
The U.S. military claims that Hussein has ties to Iraqi insurgents. "He has close relationships with persons known to be responsible for kidnappings, smuggling, improvised explosive attacks, and other attacks on coalition forces," according to Major General John Gardner.
Hussein's detention flies in the face of the U.S. military's new policy introduced in March which officials said would discourage the long-term detentions of journalists held without charge, notes CPJ. Gardner told Reuters that the U.S. military had established a new goal of reviewing cases of detained journalists within 36 hours.
Visit these links:
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/iraq18sept06na.html
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?index=4199&Language=EN
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18905
- Iraq: Journalists in Danger: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/Iraq/Iraq_danger.html
- Iraqi Journalists Rights Defence Association: http://www.ijrda.com
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