- Three killings of journalists and media staff in 24 hours
brought renewed anger and demands for international action from journalists?
leaders meeting in Athens today.
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- The world Congress of the IFJ condemned the killing of
two freelance Japanese journalists in a horrifying grenade attack near
Baghdad and expressed outrage over the targeted assassination of an editor
in Montenegro.
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- ?The world cannot stand by as journalists and media staff
are targeted and brutally murdered in the crossfire of a conflict that
the world has a right to know about,? said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.
?It is time for the international community to stand up for our right to
report safely. The United Nations should issue a clear and unambiguous
statement demanding that member states respect international rules to protect
journalists and media staff.?
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- Delegates to the Congress, the world?s largest gathering
of journalists? leaders stood for a minutes silence after President Christopher
Warren announced the news of the three deaths. ?We mourn our colleagues?
deaths and all journalists who have been killed in the last years,? he
said.
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- Two Japanese freelance journalists were killed in Iraq
died after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their vehicle south of
Baghdad. Japan?s foreign ministry, said Shinsuke Hashida, a well-known
61-year-old freelance journalist, and his nephew, 33-year-old Kotaro Ogawa
died as they were returning from Japan?s military base in the southern
town of Samawa when they were attacked near the town of Mahmudiya, about
30 km south of Baghdad.
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- Three weeks ago a Polish and Algerian journalist were
killed in a drive-by shooting on the same road. A CNN crew was attacked
in the same area earlier this year, leaving two dead. The deaths bring
to 45 the number of journalists and media staff killed since the Iraq war
began in March last year.
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- In a separate incident late last night, Dusko Jovanovic,
owner and editor-in-chief of the Podgorica-based Dan daily, was assassinated
as he entered his car in front of the paper?s head offices. Jovanovic,
a highly controversial journalist, who had published articles critical
of the ruling coalition headed by Montenegro?s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic,
had received numerous death threats.
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- ?Our Congress is outraged that this killing comes after
the unexplained deaths of two other journalists in the last five years
in Serbia and Montenegro,? said White.
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- In 2001, Milan Pantic was killed and in 1999 Slavko Curuvija,
owner of Dnevni Telegraf and Evroplijanin dailies was also murdered. Both
crimes have not been properly investigated and no-one has been brought
to justice. The IFJ supports the demands of its affiliates in Serbia and
Montenegro who are challenging a culture of impunity in the country.
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- The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than
110 countries
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- For more information, please see: International Federation
of Journalists http://www.ifj.org
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- http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1700&blz=1
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