Kurdish reporter the 278th to die in Iraq
SORAN MAMA HAMA, a reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot dead outside his home in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk in July. According to reports he died because of his reporting of corruption. At least 278 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003.
Two journalists have been released after being detained without charge by US authorities in Iraq. Ahmed Nouri Raziak, a cameraman with Associated Press, was held for 80 days without explanation.
His release on August 23 came three days after that of Ali Al-Mashhadani, a cameraman who worked for Reuters and the BBC and who was held for 26 days. He was arrested by US troops in Baghdad’s Green Zone on July 26 because he was regarded as “a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces,” a US military spokesman said. It was the third time he had been detained by US forces since 2005. No charges have ever been brought against him.
At least one Iraqi journalist escaped assassination in August, while several others reported receiving threatening phone calls. One reporter was set upon by an angry mob while covering a demonstration in Kirkuk in the area where Soran Mama Hama had been killed days earlier.