Badly-wounded radio and TV presenter emerges from coma

Reporters Without Borders has learned that Iraqi radio and TV presenter Amal Al-Mudarress has emerged from the coma she had been in since being shot several times in a murder attempt in Baghdad on 29 April, and is expected to recover. After spending several weeks in a critical condition in Yarmouk hospital, where doctors feared internal haemorrhaging, the family decided to transfer her to a hospital in the Jordanian capital of Amman, where she underwent an operation. Her doctors say she is now “out of danger.” ----------------------------------------------------------- 30.04 - Well-known radio and TV presenter in coma after being shot near her home Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern today about the condition of a well-known Iraqi public radio and TV presenter, Amal Al-Mudarress, who is reportedly in a coma after being shot several times as she left her Baghdad home yesterday. “How many more of these tragedies will we have to see before the authorities resolve to find a way to put a stop to impunity in Iraq?” Reporters Without Borders asked. “The same pattern is repeated in each attack on journalists. Armed groups are using a planned and deliberate modus operandi to spread terror within the media.” Mudarress, who is in her 60s, was leaving her home in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Khadraa early yesterday with her husband, Adnan Al-Mudarress, and her son, Kanaan, when gunmen opened fire on her, hitting her several times in the head and chest. After being taken to Yarmouk hospital, she was transferred to Kadimiyah hospital for an operation to remove a bullet in her left temple. Doctors described her condition as critical and said they needed to see how it evolved in the next 48 hours before offering any prognosis. Mudarress has been working for public radio and TV since the 1960s, becoming a household figure thanks to entertainment programmes such as “Ten Minutes.” She later worked as a radio commentator until Saddam Hussein's ouster. Since then, she has been hosting “Studio 10,” a talk-show about Iraqis' everyday problems. At least 167 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2003. Another two are missing and 12 are currently being held hostage.