Iraq

The latest series of bombings in Baghdad, Tuesday afternoon, were targeted at the city’s main hotels, which house many Iraqi and foreign news media. The offices of the Al-Hurra TV station were damaged and many journalists suffered minor injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF condemned this indiscriminate violence against Iraqi civilians but pointed out that the situation for...

Asos Hardi, the Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Awene newspaper in Iraqi Kurdistan, has been awarded the 2009 Gebran Tueni Award, the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) that honours an editor or publisher from the Arab region. Hardi, who has gained a reputation as a newspaperman with exceptional leadership skills and high professional standards in...

Imad Abadi, the Al-Diyar TV host who suffered serious gunshot injuries to the head and neck in an attack on November 23 in Baghdad, was flown to the German city of Munich on December 3 for brain surgery, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF said it was relieved to learn that the operation went ahead without any problem in Munich’s Grosshadern Clinic on December 7. Abadi’s brother...

Imad Abadi, the star anchor of the independent satellite TV news station Al-Diyar, was badly injured in a clearly targeted shooting attack Monday night in Baghdad, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Abadi was shot twice by unidentified gunmen as he was driving through the central Baghdad neighbourhood of Salihiya. “He suffered a gunshot wound to the head and another to the neck,” Al...

A Baghdad court has ruled that the London-based Guardian newspaper defamed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in an April 2009 article depicting increasing authoritarianism in his government. On Tuesday, the court fined the Guardian 100 million Iraqi dinars (US$86,000) in connection with the article, which quoted unnamed members of the intelligence service as saying that al-Maliki was...

Orhan Hijarn, an Iraqi cameraman working for privately-owned satellite TV station Al-Rashid, was killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday in Kirkuk, 240 km north of Baghdad, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Abdallah Zadeh, an Al-Baghdadiya TV reporter, suffered minor injuries. The two journalists had been out reporting and were caught in the explosion as they were returning to their homes...

An Al-Rasheed television cameraman was killed by an explosion in front of his home in Kirkuk Wednesday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Orhan Hijran, an 18-year-old cameraman with the Baghdad-based independent al-Rasheed satellite channel, was killed when a bomb exploded in front of his house in Al-Khadhrah neighborhood, in southwestern Kirkuk, Bureau Chief...

An enquiry into the October 4 assault on journalist Zohra al-Musawi was opened Wednesday by Iraq’s High Council of Judges in response to a request by a group of journalists to the council’s president, Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud, who has a reputation for conducting thorough and detailed investigations, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “A judicial enquiry is the logical, essential and...

Iraqi journalist Zohra al-Musawi was assaulted by unidentified men in the centre of Baghdad on October 4 while police and other members of the security forces look on without intervening, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Although Musawi, a presenter for satellite TV station Al Iraqiya, was wearing an Islamic veil at the time, clothes were torn off her as she was being beaten by her...

The Iraqi journalist jailed for throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush has arrived in Greece following his release, Iraqi diplomats said Thursday, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. TV reporter Muntadhar al-Zaidi went to Greece for medical treatment after suffering torture while in prison, his family said. He was released on Tuesday after being jailed for one year...