Iraq / Middle East & North Africa

  

Video: ‘Living in silence: Journalists in exile’

We write a lot at CPJ about the terrible things that happen to journalists because of their reporting, but we don’t often get a chance to show you what happens to them after they are forced to flee their homes and land abroad. This video, about three such journalists, is worth watching.

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Protesters denounce anti-press violence in Iraqi Kurdisatn in this 2010 demonstration. (AP/Yahya Ahmed)

Anti-press violence in Iraqi Kurdistan, past and present

Kurdistan is different, as nearly every Iraqi Kurd I have ever met has said. Far less violent than the rest of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the parts of the north controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government have escaped the kind of sectarian unrest that continues to flare in the south. But in…

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Six stories: Online journalists killed in 2010

This week, CPJ published its year-end analysis of work-related fatalities among journalists. Six of the 42 victims worked online. While you can read the full statistics and our special report elsewhere, I want to highlight the stories of these six journalists who worked on the Web.

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Murder, ‘suicide,’ crossfire: A week of journalist killings

Today we will report another murder of a journalist. This one was in Argentina. The last one we documented was a couple days ago–Alberto Graves Chakussanga was shot in the back in Angola. These tragedies are part of our daily work at CPJ, but this week was different. There have been eight killings of journalists…

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Wednesday on the show, Nnamdi and his guests will "examine how violence against journalists ends up influencing media coverage."

Balancing risk vs. safety in global news reporting

CPJ’s Joel Simon will be live on Wednesday on “The Kojo Nnamdi Show,” a daily news public radio show in Washington. Joining Simon will be Iraqi journalist Haider Hamza, who has covered the war in Iraq for Reuters and ABC News, and Alfredo Corchado, the Mexico bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, in a…

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Massoud Barzani (Reuters)

Veteran journalists seek justice in Iraqi Kurdistan

Last week, a number of prominent journalists who cover Iraqi Kurdistan wrote an open letter to the president of the Kurdish Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, and the president of Iraq, Talal Talabani, calling on them to bring to an end a sharp rise in violations of press freedom. A journalist was abducted and murdered in the country as…

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The White House says it wants to improve transparency. Greater access to information could prevent deaths of journalists in the field.

FOIA needs new muscle behind it, not just promises

These are busy days for Freedom of Information. On April 5, the watchdog Web site that knows no borders, WikiLeaks, posted a classified U.S. military video showing U.S. forces firing on Iraqi civilians, killing many, including two Reuters journalists, as well as wounding children. Two days later, the Pentagon posted a redacted U.S. military assessment of the same incident concluding that U.S. troops fired “in accordance…

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Mudhafar al-Husseini

An Iraqi in America: A year still unclear

I just can’t believe that it’s been almost a year since I arrived in the States. It’s been very quick, seemingly quicker than waiting in a drive-through line for a restaurant. 

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This still from the WikiLeaks footage shows a wounded Iraqi being put into a van during a 2007 attack by the U.S. military. (Reuters)

Technicalities: 10 Questions on WikiLeaks

Monday’s release of graphic video footage of an attack by the U.S. military on two Reuters journalists vividly depicted the dangers involved in covering a battlefield. It also thrust into the spotlight WikiLeaks, the enigmatic Web site responsible for obtaining, decoding, and publicizing the footage. Here’s 10 questions answered on WikiLeaks, including how it works, its goals, and some…

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Farrell writes that “when the news turns bad, the police and other security forces do their best to make sure there is no one around to record it.” (AP)

A distorted picture from Iraq

The Iraqi government is keeping photographers away from scenes of suicide attacks, according to a piece published today by Stephen Farrell on The New York Times’ “At War” blog. CPJ has objected to government regulations promulgated in May 2007 barring photographers from the scene of such bombings for an hour after they take place.

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