Government's poor record in combatting impunity condemned after two more journalists killed

Reporters Without Borders is saddened by the murders of two more journalists, Wissam Ali Ouda and Haidar Hashem Al-Husseini, in separate incidents in Baghdad and the central province of Diyala. They bring the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the start of the year to seven, and the overall media death toll since the start of the war in March 2003 to 215. “Journalists will continue to die until the Iraqi authorities make a much greater effort to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and instigators of these killings,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Those who target journalists must be arrested and punished severely. The media are all the more vulnerable because of the feeling of impunity that has taken hold in Iraq in the past five years. Many journalists have been forced to flee the country. Those that have stayed risk their lives every day.” The press freedom organisation added: “We fear that the law on the protection of journalists recently presented by the government falls far short of what is needed.” The body of Husseini, 36, who had reported for the independent daily Al-Sharq for nearly three years, was found yesterday in a common grave in the Boughrouz area near Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, 60 km northeast of Baghdad. His hands and feet were tied and he had been shot after being kidnapped the previous morning. Al-Sharq editor Abdel Rassul Al-Ziyara urged the local authorities to carry out an investigation and try to identify Husseini's killers. “Haidar had very close relations with people,” he told Reporters Without Borders. “He never received any threats. His murderers should pay for what they did.” Ouda, a 32-year-old cameraman with Afaq TV, was shot by a sniper as he was returning to his home in Al-Obeidi, a Baghdad district where there have been clashes between US soldiers and Shiite militiamen for the past few days. Witnesses said a US sniper could have mistaken him for a militant. Afaq TV is affiliated to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's Shiite party Al-Dawa.