New York, January 27, 2003—A television producer working for the U.S. cable news network CNN and his driver were killed in an ambush today on the outskirts of Baghdad, CNN has reported. The network said that producer Duraid Isa Mohammed, who also acts as a translator, and driver Yasser Khatab died of multiple gunshot wounds…
New York, January 2, 2004—A total of 36 journalists were killed worldwide as a direct result of their work in 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This is a sharp increase from 2002, when 19 journalists were killed. The war in Iraq was the primary reason for the increase, as 13 journalists,…
New York, December 11, 2003—Two journalists working with the U.S. newsmagazine Time were wounded today in a grenade attack in Baghdad while accompanying U.S. troops. Senior correspondent Michael Weisskopf and photographer James Nachtwey suffered undisclosed injuries when unidentified assailants threw a grenade into a Humvee the men were traveling in, Time managing editor Jim Kelly…
November 24, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns today’s closure of the Iraq offices of the Dubai-based satellite news channel Al-Arabiyya. The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council announced today that the station’s Baghdad-based news operations were banned from working in Iraq for an indefinite period, according to press reports. The move came after the station…
November 14, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that unidentified Iraqi gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Portuguese journalists and abducted one reporter today in southern Iraq. According to news reports and Portuguese editors who spoke with CPJ, the gunmen—who were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and other small arms—attempted to intercept a…
New York, November 3, 2003—Coalition forces in Iraq have released two Iranian journalists who had been held for four months on suspicion of spying. Said Abu Taleb and Soheil Kareemi, two journalists with Iranian State Television, were released today and returned to Iran. According to their colleagues, the journalists were in Iraq working on a…
New York, October 29, 2003–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today released an updated version of its journalist security handbook, titled “On Assignment: A Guide to Reporting in Dangerous Situations.” This new edition, which is available in hard copy and online (read or download PDF), draws on lessons learned in the most recent war in…
New York, October 28, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by reports that editor Ahmed Shawkat was murdered today in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. According to The Associated Press (AP) and an Agence France-Presse correspondent in Mosul, Shawkat, editor of the Iraqi weekly Bilah Ittijah (Without Direction), was shot and killed…
New York, October 8, 2003—Exactly six months after the U.S. shelled the Palestine Hotel in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, and an air strike hit the Baghdad bureau of the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) filed three new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the incidents with the U.S. Defense…