Call for probe into disturbing circumstances of video reporter's death

Reporters Without Borders called today on the Iraqi authorities to investigate the disturbing circumstances in which Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, a correspondent of the news website Alive in Baghdad, was killed on 14 December. Aged 23, Moussawi was founded dead in his home in the northeast Baghdad district of Habibiya after an Iraqi military raid on his street. According to an autopsy, he was shot 31 times in the head and chest. “Moussawi was killed when the Iraqi security forces carried out a raid in his neighbourhood,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The fact that he was shot so many times suggests this was a targeted murder. It is essential that the Iraqi authorities order an investigation to establish the circumstances of his death and the role of the military personnel who were present.” Alive in Baghdad founder Brian Conley told Reporters Without Borders that Moussawi had working for several months on sensitive stories that could be linked to his death. Since 2005, the website has been offering videos showing the situation of Iraqis, both those in Iraq and those who have fled abroad. On 15 November, it won the best videoblog prize in this years's Best of the Blogs (BOBS) awards, which are organised by the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle in partnership with Reporters Without Borders. At least 206 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the start of the US invasion in March 2003. There has also been no word of what happened to 15 journalists who were taken hostage.