Second targeted killing of a TV presenter in two days

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by today’s murder of Safaa Al-Dine Abdul Hameed, the presenter of the programme “Our Mosques” on provincial TV station Al-Mosuliyah. He was gunned down outside his home in the northern city of Mosul as he was leaving for work this morning. The second targeted killing of a journalist since the announced withdrawal of US combat forces at the end of August, Abdul Hameed’s murder came just one day after Al-Iraqiya TV news presenter Riad Al-Saray was gunned down outside his home in Baghdad. The Iraqi authorities must do everything possible to identify the perpetrators and instigators of these killings and bring them to justice. An exemplary trial is needed in at least one case of a murdered journalist in order to deter the gunmen from continuing to kill and spread terror throughout the country. The government needs to rise to the major challenge of guaranteeing the safety of its citizens, including journalists, who have been particularly exposed to the violence that has raged in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. Launched in April 2005, Al-Mosuliyah is a privately-owned station providing a satellite TV service for the northern province of Ninawa from Mosul, the provincial capital. Read the report “Iraq War: a heavy death toll for the media, 2003-2010.”