New York, September 4, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention of two Iraqi journalists by the U.S. military in separate incidents and calls on the authorities to make clear any charges against them or release them immediately. Omar Husham, 28, was arrested along with his father and two brothers at his…
Reuters has an in-depth story today on the increasingly dangerous reporting environment in Iraqi Kurdistan. Part of the problem, the article reports a local editor as saying, is that “the government thinks that journalists are the opposition.” Killings, threats, and attacks against journalists are on the rise, with about 60 occurrences reported to CPJ in…
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Saturday’s release of an Associated Press Television News cameraman who had been held by U.S. forces in Iraq for nearly three months without charge, but it expressed alarm over the U.S. military’s continuing practice of detaining journalists without charge in Iraq. Ahmed Nouri Raziak,…
Iraq: New York, August 21, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of a Reuters cameraman held by U.S. forces in Iraq for three weeks without charge, and it calls on the military to charge or release an Associated Press journalist who has been held since June. Ali al-Mashhadani, 39, was freed today, Reuters…
Dear President Barzani, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the wave of threats against journalists in northern Iraq in the last few weeks. CPJ has documented an alarming number of cases recently, ranging from the murder of a journalist to an attack on another by a mob to at least three death threats directed at journalists in less than a month.
New York, July 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of Iraqi reporter Soran Mama Hama, who was shot by unidentified gunmen in front of his home in Kirkuk on Monday night, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. Mama Hama, 23, a reporter with the Sulaymaniyah-based Livin magazine, had received threatening messages…