New York, September 13, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of an Iraqi photographer today in Baghdad and a journalist in Diyala province yesterday by unidentified gunmen.
Safa Isma’il Enad, 31, a freelance photographer for several outlets including the now-defunct newspaper Al-Watan, was shot in a photo print shop in Baghdad’s Ur neighborhood, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization run by local journalists. Two gunmen entered the store on Sabah al-Khayat circle and asked for Enad by his first name, a source told CPJ. When the photographer replied, they shot him. They dragged his body to their car and dumped it east of Baghdad, the source said.
Al-Watan, based in Tikrit, is affiliated with the Iraqi National Movement, a party established in 2001, which receives funds from the United States. The paper closed two months ago for lack of money and is now trying to reestablish itself as a magazine.
Another journalist and representative of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate in the eastern province of Diyala, Hadi Anawi al-Joubouri, 56, was ambushed Tuesday as he drove between Baquba and Khalis, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory. His body was found riddled with bullets. CPJ is investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.
“We are outraged by the senseless murder of Safa Isma’il Enad and Hadi Anawi al-Joubouri,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Journalists continue to be targeted simply because they report the news in Iraq and their murderers have gone unpunished by the Iraqi authorities.”
Murder accounts for 64 percent of work-related deaths among journalists and media support workers in Iraq, with crossfire and combat-related deaths accounting for the rest. In all, 79 journalists, including Safa Isma’il Enad, and 28 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since the war began on March 20, 2003, making it the deadliest conflict in CPJ’s 25-year history