Iraq / Middle East & North Africa

June 2008 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, May 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the deaths of two Iraqi journalists who were killed in separate incidents this week. Wisam Ali Ouda, a cameraman for the Afaq television station, was shot as he walked home in the Obaidi district of Baghdad on Wednesday morning, Reuters reported. The…

Arbil, Iraq, May 5, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged KRG President Masoud Barzani on Sunday to publicly investigate a spate of violent attacks against the press, end official interference and harassment of journalists, and support press legislation that conforms to international standards of free expression. A CPJ delegation met with Barzani at his headquarters…

Editor’s note: The original text of this alert was modified to correct Ibrahim Al-Saraj’s professional affiliation. New York, May 5, 2008–Unidentified gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi journalist in Mosul on Sunday after she resisted their attempt to kidnap her. The journalist, Sarwa Abdul-Wahab, and her mother were walking back from a nearby market to…

Iraqi Kurdish political leaders have cultivated an image of freedom and tolerance, but that increasingly clashes with reality. As the independent press has grown more assertive, attacks and arrests have increased.

Joel Campagna: The backstory of this report

May 2008 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

CPJ’s Impunity Index ranks countries where killers of journalists go free New York, April 30, 2008 — Democracies from Colombia to India and Russia to the Philippines are among the worst countries in the world at prosecuting journalists’ killers according to the Impunity Index, a list of countries compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists…

IRAQ: New York, April 16, 2008—Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was freed today from U.S. custody in Iraq, ending a two-year ordeal in which he fended off unsubstantiated accusations from the U.S. military that he collaborated with Iraqi insurgents. The AP reported that Hussein was “handed over to AP colleagues on Wednesday in Baghdad.”

CPJ welcomes release of CBS journalist in Basra               New York, April 14, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of CBS News journalist Richard Butler, who was freed in southern Iraq today after two months in captivity. Butler, a producer and photographer on assignment for CBS’ news magazine 60 Minutes was freed unharmed…