TV cameraman freed after being held for four days by Iraqi army

Reporters Without Borders today welcomed the release on 12 October of Omar Mohammed Fakhri, a cameraman with satellite television station Al Rafiden TV, who was arrested by an Iraqi military patrol four day earlier while filming a funeral in Baghdad. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11.10.2006 Two murders, kidnapping and arrest added to toll for Iraqi journalists The reports of the past few days of the murders of two media assistants, the kidnapping of a radio presenter and the arrest of a TV cameraman were deplored today by Reporters Without Borders. “Iraqi journalists still find the strength to practice their profession despite the terrible situation they must face,” the press freedom organisations said. “The press freedom violations continue in Iraq and yet they do not give up. We hail their courage and we urge the authorities to do everything to protect them.” Hamad Ibrahim, a driver for the satellite TV station Al-Iraqiya, was killed on 3 October 2006 in the Karama district of the northern city of Mosul when the Al-Iraqiya vehicle he was driving was riddled with bullets by unidentified gunmen. Jassim Aarif Hassan, an employee of the TV station Al-Charkiya, was gunned down on 7 October in west Baghdad. Reporters Without Borders learned this week that radio Dajla presenter Mohammed Abderrahman, 55, was kidnapped in mid-September in Baghdad. His wife and four children have received no word of him since then. He had moved home after receiving death threats. He used to work for Radio Baghdad and radio Sawt Al Jamahir when Saddam Hussein was president. Omar Mohammed Fakhri, a cameraman with the satellite station Al Rafiden TV, was arrested at a funeral in Baghdad on 8 October for filming a clash between an Iraqi military patrol and members of the family of the person being buried. He had also filmed an interview in which they blamed the Iraqi army for their relative's death. The soldiers confiscated Fakhri's material. He is still being held. A total of 109 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, while four are currently held hostage.