- The US military has been blamed for the deaths of almost
a third of all the journalists and media employees killed in Iraq since
the start of the war last year.
-
- The total number of media workers killed in Iraq this
week rose to 28 including 24 journalists, with the shooting by American
soldiers of two employees of US-funded TV station al-Iraqiya.
-
- US forces have been confirmed as responsible for seven
deaths, including employees from the BBC, Reuters, Arab TV stations al-Arabiya
and al-Jazeera and Spanish station Telecinco. In addition, the US military
has been implicated in the shooting of two further media employees, the
ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd and an Iraqi cameraman employed by the US
ABC network, who was shot in Falluja last month.
-
- According to figures compiled by Associated Press and
press watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists, half of all the journalists
and media workers killed during the hostilities in Iraq have died since
the beginning of this year.
-
- A total of 19 media employees have been killed since
George Bush formally declared the end of the war against Saddam Hussein's
regime at the beginning of May last year.
-
- Controversy over the extent to which the US military
has been responsible for the deaths of media employees operating in Iraq
comes as reports surface of mistreatment meted out to employees of al-Jazeera
by the US military.
-
- In one case, al-Jazeera cameraman Salah Hassan has accused
the US of detaining him for a month, during which he claims he was beaten,
verbally abused and kept in solitary confinement.
-
- Hassan, who was arrested in November last year following
an attack on an American convoy, claims he was addressed only as "al-Jazeera"
or "bitch" by US soldiers and at one stage was forced to stand
hooded, bound and naked for 11 hours and repeatedly kicked when he collapsed.
-
- He was eventually released on a street outside Baghdad
still dressed in the vomit-stained jump suit US guards had forced him to
wear during his incarceration.
-
- Hassan's case and the arrest of 20 other al-Jazeera journalists
has served to aggravate the already strained relations between the US military
and the Arab news channel.
-
- Last week the Doha-based station accused the US military
of "threatening" the media in Iraq and pressuring journalists
into presenting a US-biased view of events in the country, after a spokesman
for the US military accused the station of being "anti-coalition".
-
- US commanders have been furious with al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya
for repeatedly broadcasting footage of civilian victims of the violence
in Falluja, where Iraqi rebels are fighting US Marines. The US had claimed
that the majority of those killed and wounded had been armed insurgents,
but al-Jazeera ran reports that US snipers had fired deliberately on women
and children in the town.
-
- Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said viewers should switch
off al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya and watch a "legitimate, authoritative,
honest news station".
-
- "The stations that are showing Americans intentionally
killing women and children are not legitimate news sources," he said.
-
- Other allegations circulating in Iraq suggest that US
soldiers have deliberately shot at Arab journalists and demanded the removal
of an al-Jazeera reporting team from Falluja as a condition for a recent
cease-fire in the town.
-
- A spokesman for the coalition said he was unaware of
Hassan's case but that the coalition and the US military's relationship
with al-Jazeera was the same as with any other media organisation.
-
- "It's entirely open. There is no question that they
go and target journalists or cameramen or whatever," he said.
-
- All of the 14 journalists and media employees to die
in Iraq this year have been Iraqi or Arabs working for Middle Eastern or
western media companies.
-
- The latest journalist to die, Asaad Kadhim, and his driver
Hussein Saleh worked for al-Iraqiya, the TV station set up by the coalition
to help promote press freedom in the country.
-
- Mr Kadhim and Mr Saleh were shot on Monday by American
soldiers as they drove away from an interview with Iraqi police. Jassem
Kamel, an al-Iraqiya cameraman who was wounded in the shooting, claimed
a US soldier punched him in the face before he was given first aid.
-
- The incident follows the shooting of two journalists
from al-Arabiya by US soldiers at a checkpoint in Baghdad on March 18.
-
- A Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters and a cameraman
for the Telecinco TV station, Spaniard Jose Couso, were killed in April
last year when a US tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
-
- A Kurdish translator working for the BBC was also killed
in April last year when a US aircraft bombed a convoy of US special forces
and Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1200911,00.html
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