Iraqi media professionals killed in Iraq under US-Occupation

LIST UPDATED  :  294 Iraqi and 30 non-Iraqi media professionals died under US occupation  - until 15/09/2008

 

Did US military target journalists in Iraq? (18  Feb 2005)q *

 * 109 Iraqi media professionals killed in Iraq Under Occupation - Sabah Ali  - BRussells Tribunal - 08 May 2006

* Iraq’s Endangered Journalists - NYTimes, 06 Sept 2006

* Falluja-Reporters - 23 Oct 2006

 * At least 78 media professionals killed in Iraq in 2006  -  Dirk Adriaensens,  BRussells Tribunal, 21 Feb 2007

* Another U.S. Military Assault on Media -  Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily, 23 Feb 2007

* Disparate Tallies: Journalist Deaths in Iraq - Eason Jordan, 01 June 2007

* The betrayal of Iraq’s media professionals -  Dirk Adriaensens,  BRussells Tribunal, 29 Sep 2007

* UNESCO withdrew support of Reporters Without Borders - 12 March 2008

* Hundreds of journalists forced into exile in five years since start of US-led invasion - RSF, 20 March 2008

 

* Here is a link to the most complete file, worldwide, of killed media professionals in Iraq, with the names, profession, occasion, and date of killing of each media worker, compiled by the BRussells Tribunal

 

* Media Coverage of Iraq (Global Policy Forum looks at mass media coverage of the Iraq war and occupation, especially how the big US-based media companies fed the public sensational, pro-war news reports. During the war, most journalists were "embedded" with US military units, giving them a very one-sided picture of the conflict and ruling out even-handed reporting. Other journalists who decided to go "free-lance" came under attack by the US military and two popular Arab television offices were directly bombed by the US air force. Post-war reports on Iraq by the big media companies have continued in an uncritical vein, with positive reports about the occupation and negative coverage of Iraqi opposition.)

Killed Media Professionals of Iraqi Nationality  
Journalist, reporter 172  
Cameraman 26  
Photographer 6  
Administrative 37 (incl. staff employees, directors, producers ….)
Translator 12  
Driver 16        
Security guard 12        
Technician (incl. soundman) 13 Killed Media Professionals of Iraqi Nationality 294
           
Non-Iraqi Media Professionals, killed in Iraq, 24 Media Professionals of non-Iraqi Nationality who died in Iraq of non violent causes 6
           
Total Media professionals killed in the Iraq war: 318        
      MALE 294  
Total Media professionals who died in the Iraq war: 324   FEMALE 30  
           
Iraq war deadliest conflict in history for media professionals.      
Year Iraqi media workers killed Non Iraqi Total    
2003 6 20 26    
2004 51 6 57    
2005 55 1 56    
2006 87 2 89    
2007 80 1 81  
2008 15 0 15    
Total:  294 30 324    

 

Falluja-Reporters

By Nasser Khalil
Falluja, Oct 23 2006, (VOI)  Media work in Iraq has become the most hazardous occupation in the world, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). But working in the restive town of Falluja is even far worse.
 

Reporters in Iraqi hotspots such as Falluja and Ramadi complain they are caught between the hammer of the U.S. Marines and the anvil of gunmen there.
There is not a single media worker or a journalist working for a newspaper, TV channel or news agency who has not been detained by the Americans in Falluja, said Belal Fawzi, the Associated Press photographer in Falluja.


I myself was arrested three times, the last of which was two months ago when the U.S. troops raided my home, tampered with everything in the house and confiscated my camera, telephones and computer, Fawzi told the independent news agency Voice of Iraq (VOI).


He said he was held incommunicado and interrogated in a provocative way under the pretext he was cooperating with armed groups and transmitting photos of anti-U.S. or Iraqi attacks.
The U.S. forces impose very tight censorship on media people, he told VOI.


The IFJ said last week it believed the security situation in Iraq is sliding out of control as journalists risk being killed by any number of groups. These threats make critical or investigative reporting impossible. The daily attacks on media constitute a terrible assault on press freedom and democracy in Iraq.


The IFJ is calling on the Iraqi government and the U.S. government to make a commitment to protecting journalists and freedom of the press and bringing to justice those who target journalists in violent attacks, an IFJ statement said.

To cover any event, reporters have first to get the approval of the American troops in Simak military base and a U.S. patrol must escort the reporters.
This gets us into many troubles, first with the people in Falluja who are edgy towards anybody who deal with the Americans. Also, being escorted by the Americans weakens the credibility of our reporting, Fawzi said.


Many reporters were killed during covering clashes in Falluja and Ramadi including Burhan al-Lehaibi, a photographer with the American TV channel ABC, who was killed in March 2004 during clashes in Falluja’s neighborhood of al-Dubbat.


Death is waiting for many journalists especially in Falluja and Ramadi, an international news agency reporter, who declined to be named, told VOI.
 Unidentified gunmen in Ramadi assassinated Ahmed Reyad al-Karboli, Baghdad TV correspondent, and before that Mahmoud Zaal, a cameraman with the same TV channel, was shot dead by a U.S. sniper as he was shooting during a battle in the southern Ramadi neighborhood of al-Malab, he recalled bitterly.


Abdul-Qader al-Saadi, al-Arabiya TV and Associated Press correspondent in Falluja, describes work conditions for journalists in Falluja as terrible.
In Falluja, we are often reluctant to carry cameras or Thurraya sat phones and only use them quietly, he said.


Saadi said reporters can not cover the meetings between the provincial council and the U.S. forces as this would subject them to U.S. interrogation.
Saadi also points out that Falluja lives a painful human situation because of killings of civilians and random arrests.
White Phosphorus was used during Ramadan fights in 2004, but we could not cover that as it subjects us to arrest and questioning, Saadi said.
Even to sleep in their own beds has become a luxury for media people in Falluja.


I know some media workers who do not sleep in their homes and are always on the move from one house to another for fear of arrest. Others use pseudonyms, said Burhan al-Jamaily, a Lebanese TV channel LBC correspondent.

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=30022&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

109 Iraqi media professionals killed in Iraq Under Occupation

Sabah Ali  - BRussells Tribunal - 08 May 2006

 

An Iraqi woman puts flowers next to framed pictures of Iraqi journalists who were killed in Iraq during the past three years, during a ceremony in Baghdad to commemorate their martyrdom (05 April 2007) ..m

The Iraqi Journalists Union published a report and lists of the Iraqi  journalists who were killed in the last 3 years. The list took 5 months of working on the ground, documenting when, where, how and by whom, the journalists were killed as follows:

69 journalists were killed by militias or unknown armed men

21 were killed in explosions or fighting

17 were shot by the American troops.

 2 were shot by the Iraqi troops

This statistics show that the Iraqi journalist is targeted by everybody, but the question remains who is responsible for targeting them and for the lack of protection journalists among other Iraqis need. The occupying troops or the Iraqi troops, or both? For it is illogical to imagine that the American or the Iraqi authorities would hold the (unknown) armed men responsible, while they themselves are responsible of shooting 19 journalists apart from the killing of many others in fighting. In all of the other cases, these authorities are indirectly responsible for these killings, as they are responsible of providing safe environment for journalists to work in.

The bitter irony is that the freedom of speech and media (as in all other Iraqi issues like democracy and human rights) was one of the pretexts which the American administration used in invading and occupying Iraq. What kind of freedom a journalist has when his life is threatened?

The international community has to play an active rule in protecting the Iraqi journalists through creating an independent international committee to investigate the daily violations that the Iraqi journalists are exposed to, and to present those who are responsible, no matter of which nationality they are, to the international court.

*The biggest part of list was published in Al-Zawra' newspaper (the IJU paper) no.469 on Thursday May4, 2006, in Arabic.                             

Journalists killed or missing in Iraq

News agencies targeted by Iraqi and US troops
 

Bodies of two Iraqi journalists are found in Iraq

Associated Press, May. 8, 2006

Two Iraqi journalists were found dead south of Baghdad on Monday a day after they were stopped by men wearing police uniforms, the manager of their television station said.

The bodies of Laith al-Dulaimi and Muazaz Barood were discovered at midday near their hometown of Madain, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the capital, said Abdul-Karim al-Mehdawi, general manager of Al-Nahrain TV, a private station.

He quoted witnesses as saying the pair were driving to Madain on Sunday when they were stopped on the highway by men wearing police uniforms who took them away. Their bodies were brought to the morgue in Kut, officials there said.

The latest deaths bring to at least 70 the number of journalists who have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalism. Nearly 73 percent of them have been Iraqi.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961304844&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

At least 78 media professionals killed in Iraq in 2006. 

Dirk Adriaensens, 21 Feb 2007.

40 Iraqi journalists/reporters, 36 Iraqi media assist workers and 2 non Iraqi media assist workers were killed in Iraq during 2006, the deadliest year of the war.

Total for 2006: 78 

     Journalist, reporter

40

 

 

     Cameraman

6

 

73 Male

     Photographer

1

 

5 Female

     Administrative

13

 

 

     Translator

1

 

 

     Driver

6

 

 

     Security guard

6

 

 

     Technician

5

 

 

 

Total: 78 media professionals murdered in 2006

Source: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/JournalistKilled.htm

 All the mainstream newspapers around the globe use the CPJ (Committee For The Protection of Journalists) figure of 32 journalists and 15 media support staffers. 

The BRussells Tribunal lists 70% more casualties among media professionals in 2006 than CPJ, an organization that is professionally monitoring the situation of journalists. Why? 

98 journalists and 86 media support workers of Iraqi nationality, 23 media professionals of non Iraqi nationality, have been killed since the beginning of the invasion until the end of 2006. 

Total since the invasion: 207 

Journalist, reporter

98

Cameraman

18

Photographer

4

Administrative

27

Translator

9

Driver

11

Security guard

9

Technician

8

Killed Media Professionals of Iraqi Nationality:   

                   184

Killed Media Professionals of non-Iraqi Nationality:

                    23

Source: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/JournalistKilled.htm 

 

Total Media professionals killed in the Iraq war:

207

In January 2007, 8 Iraqi media professionals have been killed.  

See the full list at: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/JournalistKilled.htm . Note that there may be more casualties. This list is a strict minimum. 

The BRussells Tribunal lists 60% more casualties among media professionals since the beginning of the invasion than CPJ, an organization that is professionally monitoring the situation of journalists. Why? 

How did the BRussells Tribunal compile its list?  

The Iraqi Journalists Union published a list in Al-Zawra' newspaper (the IJU paper) no.469 on Thursday May 4, 2006, in Arabic. We translated that list.

Additional sources:

- Reporters without borders (http://www.rsf.org/special_iraq_en.php3),

- CPJ  (http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/Iraq/Iraq_danger.html),

- ICasualties (http://icasualties.org/oif/journalist.aspx)

- International News Safety Institute - INSI (http://www.newssafety.com/casualties/iraq.htm)
- International Freedom Of Expression Exchange - IFEX (http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/222)

- Iraqslogger (http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/topic/52)

and articles that were sent to us by Iraqis. 

This list is compiled correctly, even according to the CPJ standards.  

This is what CPJ states on its website: