Car bomb kills TV presenter in Tikrit

Reporters Without Borders condemns Salahaddin TV presenter Kamiran Salaheddin’s murder last night in the centre of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad). Aged 35 and the father of two children, he was killed at around 9 p.m. by a bomb placed under his car. “We offer our condolences to Salaheddin’s family, friends and colleagues,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The Iraqi authorities must do everything possible to ensure that those responsible for his death are brought to justice. His murder must not go unpunished.” Employed since 2005 by Salahaddin TV, which was launched in 2004, Salaheddin presented a news programme and a current affairs programme called Al-Iraq w-al Hadath (Iraq and Events) and headed the local journalists’ union. He was the first journalist to be killed this year in Iraq, which was ranked 152nd out of 179 countries in the 2011/2012 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.