Iraq / Middle East & North Africa

FEBRUARY 15, 2005 Posted: March 14, 2005 Meutya Hafid, Metro TV Budiyanto, Metro TV ABDUCTED Gunmen seized reporter Hafid, cameraman Budiyanto and their driver, Ibrahim Abdel Khader, near the city of Ramadi. They were en route from Amman, Jordan, to cover the observance of Ashura, one of the most important religious events for Shiites, according…

FEBRUARY 9, 2005 Posted: February 10, 2005 Abdul-Hussein Khazal, Al-Hurra KILLED—UNCONFIRMED Khazal, 40, and his son were gunned down outside their home around 8 a.m., Al-Hurra said in a statement. Khazal, who joined Al-Hurra in April 2004, also worked as a correspondent for the U.S.-funded radio station Radio Sawa, the station said.

New York, February 9, 2005—An Iraqi correspondent for the U.S.-funded television station Al-Hurra and his 3-year-old son were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the city of Basra today, according to Al-Hurra and international press reports. Abdul-Hussein Khazal, 40, and his son were gunned down outside their home around 8 a.m. Iraq time, Al-Hurra said…

FEBRUARY 4, 2005 Posted: March 14, 2004 Giuliana Sgrena, Il ManifestoABDUCTED Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, abducted on February 4, was released on March 4. Shortly after her release, she was wounded and an Italian intelligence agent escorting her was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad.

CPJ Update January 14, 2005 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists Return to front page | See previous Updates

JULY 1, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 Khaled al-Attar, Al-Iraqiya, Mosul KILLED–CONFIRMED Al-Attar, an Iraqi television producer for the state news channel Al-Iraqiya, was killed in Mosul after being kidnapped earlier in the day.

New York, January 10, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the disappearance in Iraq of French journalist Florence Aubenas, who was last seen in Baghdad on January 5 with her Iraqi translator, Hussein al-Saad. According to press reports, Aubenas, who was in Iraq working for the French daily Libération, has not been heard…

JANUARY 5. 2005 Updated: June 11, 2005 Florence Aubenas, Libération ABDUCTED Aubenas, a French journalist with the daily newspaper Libération, and her Iraqi translator, Hussein al-Saadi, were released by their kidnappers on June 11 after spending more than five months in captivity.

The Toll: 1995-2004 Each year in January, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) publishes a list of journalists killed in the line of duty around the world. This list has become the most widely cited press freedom statistic and is often seen as a barometer of the state of global press freedom. While the correlation…