Petition for release of three Iraqi media workers held hostage in Baghdad

Reporters Without Borders today urged everyone concerned about press freedom to sign a petition for the release of three Iraqi media professionals held hostage in Baghdad. It will be given to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to encourage him to do everything necessary to find them. “We have been without news of reporter Reem Zeid and her colleague Marwan Khazaal of local TV station Al-Sumariya for 120 days,” the press freedom organisation said. “We are also very worried about Salah Jali al-Gharrawi, an accountant with the Agence France-Presse bureau in Baghdad who was kidnapped on 4 April. Although weeks have gone by, we urge everyone to keep up the pressure in support of our three colleagues. We must work tirelessly for their rapid release.” Reporters Without Borders added: “Our thoughts go out to the families of these three hostages and we extend them our full support.” Zeid and Khazaal were kidnapped by four gunmen on 1 February as they left a news conference at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in the west Baghdad district of Yarmouk. Al-Sumariya still has not had any word of them. Al-Gharrawi was kidnapped on 4 April as he left the AFP bureau by gunmen in two vehicles with tinted windows and no licence plates. Two months after his abduction, AFP still does not know who carried it out and, as far as the agency is aware, no organisation has claimed responsibility. At the start of May, interior minister Bayan Jabr Sulagh ordered one of its deputies to personally take charge of the case. This official, who is in daily contact with the AFP bureau, said he circulated a report on the kidnapping to all the security services. The day after Al-Gharrawi's abduction, AFP chief executive officer Pierre Louette appealed to then Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari for help. A total of 48 journalists and media assistants have been kidnapped since the start of the war in Iraq in March 2003. Five of them (four Iraqis and Enzo Baldoni of Italy) have been killed by their abductors. Sign the petition