Defending journalists in Iraq

Please support this initiative. Initial supporters include: Journalists Nick Cohen, John Lloyd, Johann Hari, Marc Cooper (of the Nation), Henry McDonald, Ireland Editor of The Observer and author, radical journalist David Osler, Abdullah Muhsin (International Representative of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions), journalist, John Gray, who is Joint Branch Health & Safety Officer, Labour Link Branch Officer and Assistant Branch Secretary (APT&C) of Unison in Tower Hamlets and Pauline Bradley of Iraq union solidarity (all in a personal capacity).

Please support this campaign by sending your name and organisation (if any) to LFIQ.

We express our solidarity with the International Federation of Journalists (which represents over 500,000 journalists in 110 countries) in condemning the cold-blooded murder of three Iraqi journalists on 22 May 2005.

The IFJ reports that the three “were among 13 passengers in a minibus that was stopped by an armed group who picked out the journalists when they showed their press cards. The other passengers were freed, but Najem Abd Khudair, the Kerbala correspondent for the newspaper Al Mada, Ahmad Adam, a freelance writer for Al Mada and trainee journalist and Ali Jassem Al Rumi, working for Al Safeer newspaper in Baghdad were then killed".

We endorse the views of Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “These colleagues were savagely murdered. They had their throats cut in cold-blooded and ruthless executions that are a cruel demonstration of the horrors of working in journalism in Iraq today”.
85 journalists and media staff have been killed in Iraq since March 2003 of which 62 are Iraqi. The number also includes 14 deaths at the hands of US troops.

We support the following demands of the IFJ:

• Independent reports into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these journalists.

• US and Iraq authorities should charge or release eight Iraqi journalists, most working for western media, who were arrested in March allegedly because “they pose a security risk to the Iraqi people and coalition forces.” Aidan White has said “These arrests, without formal charges, are nothing short of intimidation. Journalism in Iraq is in the deepest crisis and the authorities should bring forward clear charges or release these journalists immediately. The uncertainty and injustice of arrest and arbitrary detention is intolerable.”

• We also support the work of the IFJ’s safety office in Baghdad, opened last month with the support of Iraqi journalists who have created the Iraqi National Journalism Advisory Panel to improve levels of protection for journalists, to campaign for journalists’ rights and to encourage journalists to work together in the current crisis.