ARCHIVES: Iraq
Al-Baghdadia, an Iraqi satellite TV station that has its headquarters in Cairo, has announced that it is ending all activities in Iraq as a result of a decision by the Iraqi government’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) on November 1 to suspend the operations of all its bureaux, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “In view of the prime minister’s persistent determination in preventing Al-Baghdadia from working in Iraq, the station’s management... MORE
Mazen Mardan al-Baghdadi, a reporter for Al-Mosuliya television, was gunned down on Sunday in front of his home, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Iraqi authorities to thoroughly and transparently investigate the murder. Three armed men showed up at the journalist's house on Sunday at 6 p.m. and told al-Baghdadi's father they were with military intelligence and wanted to speak to his son. "They said that they need to see Mazen urgently," al-Baghdadi... MORE
Iraqi authorities have decided to close down Al-Baghdadia TV offices in Iraq. The closure of the Cairo-based satellite channel was announced after it broadcast the demands of gunmen who attacked a church in Baghdad on Sunday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Fifty-eight people were killed during the siege, according to news reports. On Monday, security forces sealed the station's Baghdad and Basra offices. No one was allowed to enter the buildings,... MORE
Freelance cameraman Tahrir Kadhim Jawad, 27, was killed Monday in a rising trend of fatal attacks on journalists in Iraq, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Jawad died instantly after a bomb attached to his car exploded in Garma, 50 miles west of Baghdad in volatile Anbar province, according to local press freedom groups and online news reports. Jawad was driving to the capital to deliver footage when the bomb exploded. Security forces swiftly cordoned off... MORE
Alaa Mohsen, the host of the programme “Liqa Sakhen” on state-run Al-Iraqiya television, was badly injured by a bomb placed underneath his car as he was about to leave his home in the Baghdad suburb of Saydiya on the morning of September 27 to go to work. Rushed to the Yarmouk district hospital, he was reported to be in a critical condition Tuesday, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). It was the third targeted attack on a TV presenter since the United... MORE
A Baghdad court gave two alleged Sunni militants life sentences Wednesday after convicting them of the 2004 abduction of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot and their Syrian guide, who were held hostage for 124 days, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We hail this conviction and we hope that the impunity so long enjoyed by the murderers and kidnappers of journalists will cease to be the rule in today’s Iraq,” RSF secretary-... MORE
Tension is brewing between Kurdistan’s ruling parties and security forces, on the one hand, and its journalists and news media, on the other. Magazine editor Hemn Karim’s detention for more than 24 hours during the weekend and a spate of libel actions are the latest examples of this fraught climate. A wave of defamation suits seems to be eroding press freedom, especially as they often are being brought after the legally-permitted period has expired, according to Paris-based press freedom group... MORE
Sardasht Osman, a young journalist who was abducted on May 4 in Erbil and was found dead two days later in Mosul, was killed for refusing to cooperate with Ansar Al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to Al-Qaeda, not because of his work as a journalist, a Kurdistan government commission of enquiry has said. Appointed by the Kurdistan Regional Government's president, Massoud Barzani, the commission claimed that Osman had originally agreed to cooperate with Ansar Al-Islam and then refused. It... MORE
Safa al-Din Abdel Hamid, an Al-Mosuliya television presenter who was shot Wednesday morning in front of his Mosul home by gunmen firing from a speeding car, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Abdel Hamid was the second Iraqi television anchor to be killed in as many days. Riad al-Saray, an anchor for Al-Iraqiya was gunned down in Baghdad on Tuesday. "We extend our deep condolences to the family of Safa al-Din Abdel Hamid," said Mohamed Abdel... MORE
Policemen fired at the Baghdad home of the head of the Iraqi Press Agency, Haydar Hassoun Al-Fizaa, on August 27, injuring his wife and other relatives, before searching the premises and damaging furniture, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The attack on Al-Fazaa's home in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Shaab was carried by police officers travelling in seven interior ministry vehicles. With the help of neighbours, Al-Fizaa was able to take his... MORE
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