Focus on increasing threats against journalists

Despite having more freedom in post Saddam Iraq, journalists in the capital, Baghdad, say they remain under fire, often literally. Nearly two dozen journalists have been killed over the last year in attacks directed against them, as well as in terrorist attacks and during armed operations by US-led military forces. That’s according to a report released from Freedom House, a US-based NGO which examined media freedom in Iraq over the past 15 months. Continued violence and instability in Iraq are keeping journalists from operating freely, the report concludes. Following the fall of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraq now has about 200 newspapers and 90 television and radio stations. Ordinary Iraqis now have access to the Internet, which was only seen by the elite under the former regime. “Iraq’s media today, while clearly revelling in its new-found freedom, can’t fully serve the Iraqi public in the midst of instability and terrorist violence,” Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, said in a statement. Journalists say they are being threatened and killed by organised mafia figures and resistance fighters believed to be loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. Two reporters were killed in the northern city of Mosul because of their Kurdish ethnicity, probably the most chilling indictment of the dangers associated with being a journalist in Iraq, a reporter for al-Takhi Kurdish newspaper based in Baghdad, told IRIN. Al-Takhi is no longer working in Mosul because of the killings, said Muyad Daoud, 47, a senior reporter at al-Takhi. “Our reporters were assassinated in Mosul four months ago by resistance fighters there,” Muyad Daoud, 47, a senior reporter at the al-Takhi newspaper, which is supported by Kurdish leader Mahmoud Barzani, said. “They don’t want Kurdish media working in Mosul. Since other journalists at al-Takhi feel strongly about doing their jobs well, the killings chilled them but did not stop the newspaper, Daoud said. “We were targeted by Ansar al-Islam (a terrorist group in northern Iraq with suspected links to Al-Qaeda). Two of our guards were killed, too, but we still write about them.” An editor at Azzaman newspaper agreed. Azzaman has received numerous telephone and e-mail threats for its reporting, but that’s to be expected, Sa’ad Abba, Azzaman’s editor-in-chief, told IRIN. Azzaman is owned by a well-known and wealthy journalist and has some powerful friends, which protects it somewhat, Abba said. “There is no doubt that we face direct pressure, which tries to limit our freedom of speech,” Abba said. “There is an organised mafia and some extremists who refuse to accept democracy.” Affiliations with political groups and powerful people may be one of the problems of Iraq’s new media, however, the Freedom House report said. Some journalists are not objective, while others “report unsubstantiated rumours and conspiracy theories,” the report said, which can “spark further violence.” Ongoing violence means it is more dangerous for journalists no matter how non-partisan they act, however, Abba said. Numerous high-level and mid-level public officials have been assassinated in recent months, apparently by resistance fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein. In most cases, no person or group has claimed responsibility for the killings. In addition, the kidnapping of foreigners, including numerous truck drivers from neighbouring countries, has become common-place in recent weeks. “We are working in a dangerous environment, so it only makes sense that we will be targeted, one way or another,” Abba said. Drive-by shootings and threatening letters, e-mails and phone calls are daily fare at the al-Sabah newspaper, which was financed by the US-led Coalition and is now supported by the interim government. Journalists know that they must try to be neutral and not introduce religious and ethnic separation into their writing, Salah al-Mishal, the assignments editor, told IRIN. “We expect mujahadin [religious fighters] to come at any minute, but I’m not scared,” said al-Mishal. “If we feel scared and withdraw, we give the terrorists a chance to take over. We must continue our task.” Al-Mishal feels his reporters have a mission to show how the media should work in a free society. The newspaper recently reported on irregularities in elections for a national conference to be held in mid-August to name an interim parliamentary body, for example, al-Mishal said. “Sometimes people become angry with us, but we are sticking to transparency and neutrality in our writing,” al-Mishal said. “Any column must be labelled and have the writer’s name and picture.” International journalists have also been targeted - recently four reporters from NBC television were kidnapped in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad a few months ago and held for several days before frantic negotiators were able to set them free. A translator who worked for Voice of America radio was killed recently, as was a translator for Time magazine among others. Meanwhile, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday sent a letter to Iraqi Prime Minster Iyad Allawi urging his interim government to drop the ban on the Qatar-based satellite news channel al-Jazeera, which had been stopped from working in the country for 30 days on 7 August. The controversial channel has been accused of fomenting violence and encouraging kidnappings. The CPJ disputed this claim. "The Iraqi government may be unhappy with al-Jazeera's coverage but has presented no evidence that the channel's reporting constitutes a deliberate attempt to incite violence in Iraq, nor that it is likely to do so. This closure appears to be an attempt to sanction a news organisation for its negative coverage of events inside Iraq," wrote CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper in the letter to Allawi.