273 Now the Iraq toll

THE KILLING of an Iraqi media executive in Baghdad has brought to 273 the number of media workers to die since the invasion of Iraq five years ago.

Qassem Abdul Hussein al-Eqabi, head of public relations and distribution for the political daily newspaper Al-Muwaten, was shot dead by unknown gunmen while walking in Baghdad’s largely Shia Karradah neighbourhood.

“This latest death again shows the precarious security conditions that Iraqi media continue to face,” said Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists. “The Iraqi government must investigate this case and all the other attacks on journalists to prosecute those responsible and send the message that journalist can work freely and safely.”

The Iraqi Union of Journalists has put forward a plan to establish a legal basis for protection of journalists and provide support to the families of those who are killed journalists.

Earlier this year Iraqi leaders promised a high-ranking IFJ delegation to Baghdad that they would enact a law protecting the rights of journalists. They also promised that the government would publish a report on the killing of journalists “within days” — but it has still not done so.

A KIDNAPPED British journalist working for CBS News was freed by Iraqi troops in April. Richard Butler, a producer for the 60 Minutes current affairs programme, had been held for two months.

He was found in a house with a sack over his head and his hands tied, during an Iraqi military sweep in Basra. His translator, also held, had already been released.

THE US military authorities in Iraq have agreed to release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who had been detained by them for two years. A four-judge military panel dismissed terrorism-related allegations against him and ordered that he should be immediately released. They said he “no longer presents an imperative threat to security”.

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists