Large photos of three Iraq hostages unveiled in Paris square, new campaign launched

On the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, Reporters Without Borders today paid tribute to the 86 journalists and media assistants who have lost there lives there in the past three years, and it participated in a ceremony in which large photos of the three journalists currently held hostage in Iraq - Jill Carroll, Reem Zeid and Marwan Khazaal - were displayed in a central Paris square. The three photos were unveiled on Place de la Nation by deputy Paris mayor Pierre Schapira, Peter Ford, the head of the European bureau of the Christian Science Monitor (one of the newspapers that Carroll writes for) and Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. Those who spoke include Christian Aronica, a friend of French cameraman Frédéric Nérac, who went missing in Iraq three years ago. Aronica deplored the lack of progress in the investigation into Nérac's disappearance and the fact that, because of the uncertainty about his fate, his family is unable to mourn properly. A large photo of Nérac, along with one of Guy-André Kieffer, a journalist who disappeared in Côte d'Ivoire on 16 April 2004, have been on display in the centre of Place de la Nation since March 2005. As Kais Alazawi, the editor of the Iraqi newspaper Al Jareda, looked on, Ménard announced the creation of a support fund for the families of journalists killed in Iraq who worked for newspapers with very limited resources. The fund will be financed by Reporters Without Borders and its beneficiaries will be chosen with the help of the Union of Iraqi Journalists. At the same time, Reporters Without Borders today issued a survey about the 86 journalists killed in Irak since March 2003 - who they were, how they died, and who fired the shots that killed them. Reporters Without Borders also launched an international awareness campaign about the risks run by journalists in Iraq. Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi, the campaign has been produced in five languages: French, English, Spanish, German and Italian. The campaign image shows a street devastated by a blast and the wreck of a car in flames. A newspaper kiosk can be made out through the smoke. And the message says: “At the rate they're killing journalists in Iraq you'll soon have to go there and get the news yourself. Since the start of the war three years ago, 86 journalists have been killed in Iraq. Don't wait to be deprived of news to stand up and fight for it.” This campaign will appear in: - ads placed in daily newspapers and magazines - 1,000 50cm x 70cm posters being sent out to the international press - 60 cm x 80 cm posters that will be put up all over Paris - 10,000 post cards being distributed today in New York and Washington -4 x 3 metre format on two trucks driving around the streets of Paris today.