Joy at release of Associated Press cameraman

Reporters Without Borders today voiced its satisfaction at the release on 23 August of Ahmed Nouri, a cameraman with the US news agency Associated Press, but repeated its call to the US authorities to put an end to arbitrary arrests of Iraqi journalists. Nouri was held for 80 days at the US base, Camp Cropper, close to Baghdad airport. His release came three days after that of Ali al-Mashhadani, a freelance for several foreign media including the British news agency Reuters. The US authorities have refused to give any reason for the 4 June arrest of Nouri in Tikrit, 180 kilometres north of the capital, but have suggested that it was for the reasons of “security”. In common with al-Mashhadani, Nouri had been imprisoned by the US military on a previous occasion, spending two months in Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. ------------------------------------------------------------ 21.08.2008 Iraqi journalist freed after 26 days in US base Reporters Without Borders calls on the US authorities in Iraq to put a stop to their arbitrary arrests of journalists after Ali Al-Mashhadani (photo), a cameraman employed by several news organisations, was released today from Camp Cropper, a US base near Baghdad airport where he had been held for 26 days. It was Mashhadani's third spell in US detention centres in Iraq since 2005. An Associated Press cameraman is still being held for “security reasons.” “We hail Mashhadani's release while hoping to quickly obtain assurances from the US authorities that their harassment of this journalist will stop for good,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He has been detained three times in the last four years without ever being charged. Many other journalists have been held arbitrarily since the start of the war in Iraq without any attempt by Washington to put a stop to the US military's abuses. The US-led coalition should not be trying to gag the press.” Mashhadani, who works for Reuters, the BBC and National Public Radio, was arrested by US troops while visiting the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad's Green Zone on 26 July. A US military spokesman said he was regarded as “a threat to the security of Iraq and coalition forces” but did not elaborate. He was previously held from August 2005 to January 2006, and then again for two weeks later in 2006. No charge has ever been brought against him. Ahmed Nouri, an Iraqi cameraman employed by the Associated Press, is still being held at a US base in Tikrit (180 km north of Baghdad), where he was arrested on 4 June.