West Asia - North Africa

BAGHDAD – In a polarized Iraq, radio host Suhad Rabia did everything she could to stop her listeners from figuring out whether she was Shiite or Sunni. When callers used abusive language to speak of ethnic or religious groups other than their own, she promptly took them off the air. When they expressed extremist sectarian sentiments, she reminded listeners that the station did not share their...

Baghdad, May 11, (VOI) – Iraqi journalist Jamal al-Atabi said the U.S. forces released his son Furat, a layout designer in the Iraqi newspaper al-Sabah, on Friday after three months in detention. "Iraqi Member of Parliament Mathal al-Alusi had several contacts with the U.S. forces for the release of my son, detained since February 2007, without any charges," Atabi told the independent news agency...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, May 9, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's murder of an Iraqi journalist, his driver, and two passengers, who were gunned down outside the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Gunmen riding in an Opel without a license plate intercepted a vehicle carrying Raad al-Mutashar, 43, owner and director of a media company, on a road southwest of Kirkuk at around 2...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists, which is hosting a meeting in Iraq to devise a national safety strategy for journalists and media staff, today condemned the killings of three journalists and their driver, who were reportedly tortured and shot in Northern Iraq. "These killings bring the media death toll to more than 200 and underscore just how urgent it is to confront the...

Photojournalist Dmitry Chebotayev was killed in a bombing Sunday while on assignment in Iraq, according to news reports and his agency, World Picture News. Chebotayev was traveling with U.S. forces in Diyala province when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. Six American soldiers were killed and two were wounded, according to the U.S. military. Russian news organizations...

BAGHDAD — One of Iraq's most beloved broadcasters was wounded in an assassination attempt Sunday, the latest target in a string of attacks against journalists here. Amal Mudarris, 58, a Baghdad radio veteran who began her career in 1962, suffered serious head injuries when she was shot several times outside her Baghdad home Sunday morning. Doctors said later in the day that her condition had...

Sulaimaniya, Apr 17, (VOI) - Security forces in the city of Sulaimaniya arrested on Tuesday the editor-in-chief of (Lavin) Magazine, Ahmed Mera, after publishing an article on the repercussions of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's recent illness, an official from the Kurdish magazine said. "After publishing an article titled ‘Legacy of the sick man’ on the repercussions of the recent illness of...

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston’s abductors have demanded $5 million for his release, the London-based Asharq Alawsat reported Tuesday even as the police in the Gaza Strip scuffled with journalists demonstrating in support the journalist. The demand for ransom contradicts reports circulated Sunday that Johnston had been executed, which Palestinian Authority security officials said they could...

A US soldier facing trial in absentia next week in Italy for shooting dead an Italian hostage negotiator and wounding a journalist at a road block in Baghdad has justified the shooting. Mario Lozano of the US Army’s 69th Infantry Regiment told the New York Post in his first major interview since the 2005 incident that when confronted with the vehicle moving at speed towards his checkpoint he did...

Reporters Without Borders today voiced deep concern about the fate of the 12 media personnel held hostage in Iraq after the security forces found the body of Othman Al-Mashhadani, the correspondent of the Saudi daily Al-Watan. “The figures are horrendous, but measures still have not been taken to put an end to the butchering of journalists and their assistants,” the press freedom organisation said...