Izvještaj o otvaranju paljbe amerièke vojske u Iraku potièe nova pitanja o pogibiji novinara

22.05.2008.

Media Release

22 May 2008

Iraq Report of US Army Shooting Sparks New Questions over Killing of Journalists

The ordeal of journalists in Iraq continued this week with the killing of two more local journalists in separate incidents in Baghdad and the province of Diyala on Wednesday bringing to 32 the number of journalists and media staff killed worldwide since the start of the year, said the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

The killing of Wissa Ali Ouda, a reporter for private television station Afaq, reportedly shot dead by a United States soldier, as he was heading home in the Al-Obeidi district of northeastern Baghdad, has raised new concerns about media deaths at the hands of the military only days after the IFJ called for a new investigation into the targeting of media staff by US forces.

On the same day the body of another journalist, Haidar Hashem al-Husseini, was found in the town of Baquba. He had been kidnapped on Monday said police.

In another incident in Pakistan the IFJ affiliated Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists reported yesterday that Mohammad Ibrahim, a reporter for Express TV, was killed after a high profile interview of Maulvi Umar, chief of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, when unidentified gunmen killed shot him from close range.

"Once again the death toll is mounting and it is in Iraq where the media are suffering most," said Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists. "These latest killings raises new questions about targeting of media staff and they must be fully investigated."

The IFJ, which represents two unions of journalists in Iraq, the Iraqi Union of Journalists based in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Syndicate of Journalists, covering news media people in the Kurdish north of the country, says that a full and independent investigation of all killings of journalists at the hands of United States forces during the Iraq conflict must be carried out.

The call follows revelations on the Internet site Democracy Now! by a US army veteran that the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, a media centre for non-embedded reporters that was attacked by US forces killing two journalists, was on a list of targets for the invading forces.

The IFJ says that at least 20 journalists and media staff have been killed by US forces since the invasion in 2003.  ‘This latest death is only one in a lengthening list of cases for concern," said White. "The friends, family and colleagues of victims have a right to know the truth about the circumstances in which these killings have happened."

The IFJ has been working with its affiliates in the country and the International News Safety Institute to develop a national strategy for safety. According to the Iraq Media Safety group at least 260 journalists and media staff have been killed since the invasion of the country.

The killings in Iraq have pushed the numbers of media workers killed annually to record levels in the last three years. But violence against journalists has been on the rise in other countries, including Pakistan, Somalia and Mexico, the IFJ said.

For more information contact the IFJ at +32 2 235 2207

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide

 

 

Povratak