Iraq / Middle East & North Africa

  

Newspaper editor seized in Iraq; whereabouts unknown

New York, April 22, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi authorities to clarify the disappearance and current whereabouts of Saad al-Aossi, editor-in-chief of the critical weekly Al-Shahid.

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Mudhafar al-Husseini

An Iraqi in America: A year still unclear

I just can’t believe that it’s been almost a year since I arrived in the States. It’s been very quick, seemingly quicker than waiting in a drive-through line for a restaurant. 

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Journalists assaulted covering Iraqi Kurdistan protests

New York, April 20, 2010—Anti-riot police assaulted journalists covering two different protests in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday and Tuesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attacks and calls on authorities to stop harassing journalists reporting in the field.

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Getting Away With Murder

CPJ’s 2010 Impunity Index spotlights countrieswhere journalists are slain and killers go free New York, April 20, 2010—Deadly, unpunished violence against the press has soared in the Philippines and Somalia, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail…

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This still from the WikiLeaks footage shows a wounded Iraqi being put into a van during a 2007 attack by the U.S. military. (Reuters)

Technicalities: 10 Questions on WikiLeaks

Monday’s release of graphic video footage of an attack by the U.S. military on two Reuters journalists vividly depicted the dangers involved in covering a battlefield. It also thrust into the spotlight WikiLeaks, the enigmatic Web site responsible for obtaining, decoding, and publicizing the footage. Here’s 10 questions answered on WikiLeaks, including how it works, its goals, and some…

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Farrell writes that “when the news turns bad, the police and other security forces do their best to make sure there is no one around to record it.” (AP)

A distorted picture from Iraq

The Iraqi government is keeping photographers away from scenes of suicide attacks, according to a piece published today by Stephen Farrell on The New York Times’ “At War” blog. CPJ has objected to government regulations promulgated in May 2007 barring photographers from the scene of such bombings for an hour after they take place.

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Chmagh (Reuters)

Video shows U.S. attack that killed Reuters staffers in Iraq

New York, April 5, 2010—Disturbing video footage showing a 2007 U.S. military airstrike that killed about a dozen Iraqis in eastern Baghdad, including a Reuters cameraman and assistant, was released today by WikiLeaks, a Web site that publishes sensitive leaked documents. The video raises questions about the actions of U.S. military forces and the thoroughness…

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Journalists among the dead in leaked Iraq video

The Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement today after reviewing a classified U.S. military video showing the killing of an unspecified number of individuals, including Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and camera assistant Saeed Chmagh, outside Baghdad. The footage was shot in July 2007 and the video was posted on WikiLeaks.

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Muaid al-Lami at a Baghdad hospital following an attack that wounded his driver. (Reuters)

Journalist Syndicate chief escapes assassination attempt

New York, March 25, 2010—Iraqi authorities must urgently investigate an assassination attempt Sunday against Muaid al-Lami, head of the Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

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Iraqi radio journalist kidnapped by unknown gunmen

New York, February 18, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the fate of Iraqi reporter Hussam Daoud al-Eqabi, who was seized by unidentified armed men on Wednesday. Al-Eqbi is a political reporter for Al-Ahed, a radio station in Kirkuk affiliated with radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

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