(AAI/IFEX) – The following is a 7 May 2007 AAI press release: In memory of Martyr Arab Journalists and Writers Amman-May 7, 2007 – A report prepared by the AAI in Jordan found an estimated 72 Arab journalists killed between 2001 and 2006 for reasons directly related to their work; 12 of them were women. […]
(AAI/IFEX) – The following is a 7 May 2007 AAI press release:
In memory of Martyr Arab Journalists and Writers
Amman-May 7, 2007 – A report prepared by the AAI in Jordan found an estimated 72 Arab journalists killed between 2001 and 2006 for reasons directly related to their work; 12 of them were women. This means that at least one journalist was killed every month in an Arab country in the last six years, with Iraq evidently being the most dangerous country.
The high number of Arab journalists killed in six years overshadowed their accomplishments and their legacies, according to the AAI report, which was carried out in cooperation with the IFEX network and UNESCO. The main motive behind the killing of these journalists was intimidation.
AAI would like to pay tribute to journalists who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom through the use of words or pictures. It is a reminder to activists around the world of the highly dangerous circumstances Arab journalists are working in, not only in Iraq, but also in other places where enemies of freedom find words too much to be tolerated.
AAI would like to remember these journalists and the heroic sacrifices they made for the development of free media around the Arab world. And while Iraq is the country where journalists are most prone to being attacked, journalists from other Arab countries are also harassed, tortured and killed for their beliefs and for expressing them.
Algeria: Abdel Hai Bilyardoh, Murad Belqasem (43), Hamid l’reibi Fadila Nejma, Adel Zerrouk
Jordan: Riham Farra (29), Tareq Ayyoub (34)
Sudan: Mohammad Taha (50)
Kuwait: Hidaya Salem (65)
Palestine: Mazen Da’na (38), Nazeeh Darwazeh (44), Khalil Ziben (59), Zakaria Ahmad (45), Imad Abu Zahra (28), Amjad Allami (20), Othman Qatnani, Issam Tillawi (30), Mohammad Bishawi (27)
Lebanon: Jubran Tweini (48), Samir Kassir (45), Layal Najeeb (23)
Lybia: Deif Al Ghazal (29)
Iraq: Atwar Bahjat (30), Aqeel Muhammad Al Ban (58), Nabil Ibrahim Al Dulaimi (36), Luma Al Karkhi, Naqshin Hamma Rashid (30), Abdel Majid Isma’il Khalil, (67), Saed Mahdi Shlash, Raed Qays (28), Raeda Wazzan (40), Hussam Sarsam (36), Ahmed Jabbar Hashim (35), Fadhil Hazem Fadhil, Ali Ibrahim Issa, Saman Abdullah Izzedine, Saleh Ibrahim (30), Ahmed Adam, Najem Abed Khudair, Jerges Mahmood Mohamad Suleiman, Maha Ibrahim, Yasser Salihee (30), Ahmed Wael Bakri (30), Khaled Al Attar, Adnan al-Bayati, Rafed Said Al Anbagy (36), Hind Ismail (28), Fakher Haider (38), Firas Maadidi (40), Mohammed Haroon (47), Ahmed Hussein Al-Maliki, Aqeel Abdul Ridha, Muqdad Muhsin, Safir Nader, Haymin Mohamed Salih, Ayoub Mohamed, Gharib Mohamed Salih, Semko Karim Mohyideen, Abdel Sattar Abdel Karim, Nadia Nasrat, Ali Abdel Aziz, Burhan Mohamed Mazhour, Asaad Kadhim, Mahmoud Hamid Abbas (32), Mazen al-Tumeizi, Karam Hussein, Dina Mohammed Hassan, Dhia Najim, Tareq Ayyoub (34), Ahmed Shawkat
Information in this summary and the original report was gathered from several sources, including the AAI database, the IFEX Communiqué and IFEX alerts, information from Iraqi friends, websites of international organizations for human rights and media freedom (such as Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontiers and the International News Safety Institute).
The full report, which covers Algeria, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, can be obtained on request from AAI by writing to: [email protected]