Detention and murder : the nightmare continues for journalists

Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern today about the fate of Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer working for the Associated Press bureau in Baghdad, after learning that the US army has been holding him since 12 April for “reasons of security” - because he is suspected of links with Iraqi insurgents. “It is alarming that Hussein has been held by the coalition forces for more than five months without any charge being brought against him,” the press freedom organisation said. “The US army cannot hold a prisoner indefinitely like this. He must be tried or released. We call on the US authorities to put an immediate end to this violation of the rule of law, and we point out that the US army already held five journalists for several months before freeing them without bringing charges.” Hussein had been covering events in Fallujah and Ramadi prior to his arrest. The Associated Press only decided to make the arrest public after five months of talks with the US authorities to obtain his release had proved fruitless. The US army meanwhile arrested Fadel Al-Badrani, an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters and the BBC, on 13 September in Fallujah and took him to an army base at Al-Saklawiya before freeing him on 18 September. Ali Kahzal of the magazine Al-Fallujah was arrested in Fallujah the same day and was freed four days later. “The situation in Iraq is extremely dangerous and to work as a journalist means becoming a target,” Reporters Without Borders added, on learning of the death of another journalist, Ahmed Riyad Al-Karbuli of the satellite television station Baghdad TV, who was gunned down yesterday. Baghdad TV had already lost three of its journalists. A total of 107 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003.