British reporter employed by CBS is still held by kidnappers, but his Iraqi interpreter is freed

Reporters Without Borders welcomes yesterday's release of an Iraqi interpreter employed by the US TV network CBS who was kidnapped two days earlier in Basra, 590 km south of Baghdad. Several Iraqi sources have said his abductors may soon also release the British journalist they kidnapped at the same time. “We must remain on alert as long as the British reporter employed by CBS has not been released as well,” the press freedom organisation said. “We hope that intercession by members of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's movement will quickly bear fruit and the journalist will be safely reunited with his family.” Walid Al-Khuzaiy, a member of the Moqtada Sadr movement in Basra, told Reporters Without Borders that the British journalist, who has not been identified by CBS, would be released soon, as his Iraqi interpreter was yesterday. The movement, which is very influential in southern Iraq, is in contact with the kidnappers and has been trying to convince them to free both hostages. “We must protect journalists because they are key witnesses of what is happening in the country,” Khuzaiy told Reporters Without Borders. “The armed groups responsible for kidnapping journalists are mainly doing it for money, even if some of them try to justify their actions by giving political or religious reasons.” Last year, 25 journalists and media assistants were kidnapped in Iraq. A total of 208 have been killed in connection with their work since the start of the US-led invasion in 2003. James Brandon, a reporter for the London-based Sunday Telegraph newspaper, was released in August 2004 as a result of the intervention of Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi, a close associate of Moqtada Sadr. In a separate development, the bullet-riddled body of freelance journalist Haidar Mijwit Hamdan, 27, was found in central Baghdad on 12 February. He had been missing since leaving the offices of the Association of Young Iraqi Journalists two days earlier. Click here to see the chapter on Iraq in the Reporters Without Borders annual report on press freedom worldwide that was released yesterday.