New York, August 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the fate of three journalists who are missing in Iraq and have not been heard from for several days. Christian Chesnot, a reporter with Radio France-Internationale, and Georges Malbrunot, a reporter with the French daily Le Figaro, have been out of…
Baghdad, August 22, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release in Iraq on Sunday of U.S. journalist Micah Garen and his Iraqi translator Amir Doushi, who were abducted by gunmen on or about August 13 in the city of Nasiriyah. A CPJ representative spoke to Garen and Doushi and confirmed they are free and…
New York, August 18, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned by reports today that an armed group in Iraq has threatened to kill the abducted American journalist Micah Garen in 48 hours unless U.S. forces withdraw from the city of Najaf. A group calling itself the Martyrs Brigade released video to the Qatar-based…
New York, August 17, 2004—An Iraqi cameraman working for the German television station Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) was killed August 15 in Fallujah, the station confirmed today. Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, 32, also worked as a producer and editor for the public television broadcaster. ZDF said in a statement that Abbas had called the station August…
New York, August 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns attempts during the weekend by Iraqi authorities to bar media from the Iraqi city of Najaf, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting Shiite insurgents. According to CPJ sources in Iraq, most journalists were forced to leave the city as a result of…
New York, August 16, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that a French-American journalist and his translator have gone missing in Iraq and may have been abducted. Micah Garen, a journalist with the U.S.-based Four Corners Media, and his translator Amir Doushi, were abducted Friday by two armed men in civilian…
New York, August 13, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction of a British freelance journalist in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The journalist, James Brandon, was released today, according to international press reports. Brandon, a journalist working for The Sunday Telegraph of London and other media, was taken by gunmen at Al-Diyafa…
Minister al-Naqib: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the reported detentions of several Baghdad-based staff members of the official Iranian news agency IRNA. Iraqi police detained Mostafa Darban, IRNA’s Baghdad bureau chief, and as many as three Iraqi staff members on Monday, according to international news reports. The circumstances of the reported detentions remain unclear.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the Iraqi interim government’s closure of the Iraq offices of the Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. On August 7, the interim government barred Al-Jazeera from working in Iraq for 30 days, accusing the station of incitement to violence and hatred, according to news reports. Your Excellency announced the decision at a press conference, noting that an Iraqi media monitoring body had produced a report “on the issues of incitement and the problems Al-Jazeera has been causing.” You also said the ban was implemented to “protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq.”