An unidentified gunman shot al-Safi, a correspondent for the Kuwait-based Al-Anwar satellite channel, outside the channel’s offices in Baghdad’s north-central neighborhood of Al-Etifiyah, according to Bassem al-Safi, a member of the reporter’s extended family and a fellow journalist.
Adnan Al-Safi had just finished work and was waiting for a public van to take him home when the shooting occurred at 3 p.m. on July 25, the relative said. Al-Safi, shot in the head, was taken to a Baghdad hospital, where he died 48 hours later.
Bassem al-Safi told CPJ that the journalist appeared to be targeted; bystanders were uninjured. He told the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, an Iraqi press freedom organization, that an armed group had been seen in the station’s neighborhood. Al-Anwar is a moderate Shiite satellite channel focusing on Islamic culture and issues.
Adnan al-Safi founded and headed the Islamic Press Union in 2005, which held workshops and lectures on television, radio, and print journalism, said the relative, a fellow member of the union. The victim, who was in his late 30s, also worked for radio station Sawt al-Iraq and served as an adviser in the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory. He was survived by a wife and three children.