Press death toll reaches 83 as third anniversary of the start of the war approaches

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the murder of television reporter Monsef Al-Khalidi of Baghdad TV, who was shot dead at the wheel of his car by gunmen yesterday on the road from Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul. He was the 83rd journalist to be killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003. “Journalists are continuing to pay the price for the appalling situation in Iraq three years after the start of the war,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We yet again call on the Iraqi authorities to carry out thorough investigations into these killings in order to quickly establish the circumstances.” The press freedom organization added: “Our thoughts go out to this reporter's family and his employer. This is the third journalist that Baghdad TV has lost. The previous ones were reporter Maha Ibrahim in July 2005 and cameraman Mahmoud Zaal in January 2006.” In addition to the 83 journalists killed since the start of the war, a total of 38 journalists have been kidnapped. Five of them - four Iraqis and one Italian (Enzo Baldoni) - were killed by their abductors. The others were released safe and sound. US journalist Jill Carroll has been held hostage since 7 January. Two Iraqi reporters, Reem Zeid and Marwan Khazaal, have been held hostage since 1 February. The pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya is the foreign news organisation that has sustained the highest losses in Iraq. Six of its journalists have been killed. The local TV station Al-Iraqiya is the hardest-hit Iraqi media, with 10 journalists killed.