A bomb blast outside Iraq's national journalists' union in central Baghdad wounded the union's head and three others on Saturday. The explosion apparently targeting Muaid al-Lami, head of the Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate, caused no deaths, news agencies reported.
Reuters reported:
"Some vehicles outside caught fire and it shattered all the glass in the building," union member Hassan al-Aboudi, who was in the building at the time, told Reuters. Police said six people had been wounded in the blast. Aboudi said the bomb went off as the Lami was saying goodbye to guests at the entrance to the union. He was evacuated for treatment along with one guest and two of his body guards.
A week ago, a correspondent and two cameramen working for the independent TV station al-Sharqiya were abducted along with their driver as they arrived to film a reality show in the northern city of Mosul. They were found shot to death soon afterwards, a Los Angeles times report recalled.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki issued a statement condemning the al-Sharqiya employees' killings, but his government has adopted laws that fly in the face of press freedoms. In May 2007, it declared bomb sites off-limits to news photographers, saying they might destroy forensic evidence. News media advocates said the law was intended to prevent negative images of Iraq from being circulated.
