New York, March 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating today’s murder of an Iraqi cameraman in Mosul who was working for a Kurdish television station.
According to several international press reports, gunmen shot and killed Hussam Hilal Sarsam, listed in some reports Hussam Habib. The reports stated that the journalist was kidnapped before his murder, but there is conflicting information about when he was kidnapped.
Agence France-Presse reported that a family member of the journalist said he was kidnapped two weeks ago, while Reuters reported that colleagues said he was kidnapped 12 hours before he was killed.
Reuters quoted the station manager of Kurdish Television as saying that the kidnappers “tried to use Hussam to guide them to other employees, but he refused and they fired four rounds at him in front of passers by.”
According to CPJ research, 37 journalists have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.
