The Guardian quotes CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem in the article “Iraq war logs: US fails to answer for deaths of journalists” carried on October 22.
Following Wikileaks’ recent publication of American military documents the Guardian describes how Iraq has been one of the most dangerous recent wars for the media.
The Guardian quotes a secret intelligence report on the killing of Asaad Kadhim and his driver, Hussein Saleh, who worked for the US-funded TV station al-Iraqiya. They were shot by US troops outside a base at Samarra, 80 miles north of Baghdad, on 19 April 2004. Back then the US military promised accountability and assess to information. But so far there have been now answers.
“They have not come back with results, not to CPJ, and as far as I know not to the families either.” Abdel Dayem says in the article.
In a letter to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on April 26 CPJ renewed our call for comprehensive, impartial, and public inquiries into 19 cases where journalists and media support workers have been killed by U.S. forces’ fire in Iraq, including this case.