CPJ, Human Rights Watch urge checkpoint safety
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld, We are writing to you as the executive directors of Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists to express our ongoing concern about the U.S. military’s failure to develop and implement adequate procedures at military checkpoints in Iraq. More than two years after the March 2003 invasion, flawed checkpoint procedures continue to unnecessarily endanger the lives of civilians and U.S. service members.
Pentagon should implement its own recommendations to protect civilians, U.S. forces
New York, June 17, 2005—The U.S. military’s inadequate checkpoint procedures in Iraq endanger civilians, including journalists, as well as U.S. service members, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists said today in a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The letter called on Rumsfeld to immediately implement a series of…
French journalist, Iraqi interpreter freed after five months in captivity
New York, June 13, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of a French journalist and her Iraqi interpreter who had been held captive in Iraq for more than five months. Florence Aubenas, a veteran foreign correspondent for the French daily Liberation, and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, were freed on Saturday. Hanoun…
IRAQ
MAY 31, 2005 Posted: June 17, 2005 Jerges Mahmood Mohamad Suleiman, Nineveh TV KILLED—CONFIRMED Suleiman, a news anchor at Nineveh TV, was shot by unidentified assailants in the Iraqi city of Mosul in late May. Nineveh TV is a local affiliate of Al-Iraqiya TV, which is part of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Media Network. The Associated…
IRAQ
MAY 31, 2005 Posted: June 15, 2005 Mouthana Ibrahim, Al-Arabiya ATTACKED Ibrahim a reporter with the Dubai-based Arabic satellite channel Al-Arabiya was injured after being shot in Mosul, his hometown. The journalist, who has been threatened repeatedly by insurgents for his work, was driving with his family in an industrial area of the city, when…
Romanian journalists and translator released
New York, May 23, 2005—Three Romanian journalists and their translator were released Sunday after nearly two months of captivity in Iraq. The journalists arrived in Romania today. A group identifying itself as the Muadh ibn Jabal Brigade kidnapped reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, both of Bucharest-based Prima TV, and reporter Ovidiu…
Two journalists and their driver killed
New York, May 17, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder of two Iraqi journalists on Sunday on a road in Latifiyah, a town about 25 miles south of Baghdad. Agence France-Press identified the journalists as Ahmed Adam and Najem Abed Khudair, who worked for the private Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada.…
CPJ calls on U.S., Iraqi authorities to explain journalist detentions
New York, May 12, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed deep concern about the detentions of at least eight Iraqi journalists by U.S. and Iraqi military forces. CPJ called on U.S. and Iraqi officials to publicly explain the basis for the journalists’ continued detention. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan told CPJ that…