Demokracija je daleki san, smatra IFJ

08.08.2005.

Democratic reform and a newconstitution forIraqwillremain a distant dream while journalists continue to be targeted and murderedsaid the International Federation of Journalists today following the violentkilling of Steven Vincent, aUnitedStatesjournalist in the southern town ofBasrayesterday.

The IFJ says 93 journalistsand media staff have been killed since the start of the war in March 2003 and ofthese 68 have been Iraqi reporters and media workers.

 “The media safety crisis is as bad as ever,”said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. The authorities must give priority toending the security nightmare that makes the exercise of journalism a practicalimpossibility. Otherwise all talk of democratic reform and constitutional reformwill be a distant dream.”

The IFJ is organising aconference ofIraqjournalists’ representatives inJordanshortly to discuss the security crisis andjoint actions inIraqto unify journalists andstrengthen the rights of media.  

Freelancereporter Vincent was shot by unknown gunmen inBasra, southernIraq,where insurgents have recentlystepped up their attacks. He had been abducted with his female Iraqi translatorat gunpoint yesterday as they left a currency exchange shop. His body was foundsouth of the city a few hours later. The translator, Nour Weidi, was found alivebut seriously wounded.

Mr Vincent had been inBasrain recent months working for theChristian Science Monitorand theNew York Timesand was gatheringmaterial for a book aboutBasra. In a recent article, he wrote thatBasra's police force had been infiltrated by Shiamilitants and he has also criticisedUKforces, which are responsible for security inBasra, forignoring abuses of power by Shia extremists.

“This latest killing brings to23 the number of media deaths inIraqthis year, but it is the firstinvolving an international reporter in 2005,” said White. “The incidentreinforces our view that thesafety crisis inIraqmust be dealt with as a toppriority.”

The death toll in 2004 and2005 has probably not included many international media staff because securityconcerns have led many media to withdraw their staff from the country or toinsist that they do not travel unguarded from high-security accommodation. As aresult, much of the western journalists reporting fromIraqdependheavily upon the assistance of local Iraqi journalists who do travel and whohave suffered as a result.

 The death inBasrais the first in the town this year says the IFJ; allof the other killings have taken place inBaghdad, the infamous “Sunni Triangle” of townsincluding Falluja or in the Kurdish region.

Povratak