Two Iraqi journalists gunned down outside their homes in separate shootings

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the fatal shootings of two Iraqi journalists yesterday in Iraq. TV journalist Dina Mohammed Hassan was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad as she was leaving for work. Photographer Karam Hussein was gunned down outside his home in the northern city of Mosul. "We are extremely disturbed by the circumstances of these killings, which have the hallmarks of targeted murders," the organisation said. "Many Iraqi journalists have been killed since the start of the year, some probably because they were working for foreign news media, others simply because they were journalists and armed groups that do not respect free expression are trying to intimidate the entire news profession," Reporters Without Borders added. The press freedom organisation asked Iraq's interim government to conduct swift and thorough investigations with the aim of identifying those responsible for these killings and preventing similar incidents in the future. It also reiterated the principle that "journalists are neutral observers whose work must be protected and respected in order to ensure that news reporting is as free and thorough as possible." Hassan, who was gunned down in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Adhamiya, worked for Al-Hurriya, a TV station run by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which is headed by a Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani. Hussein, 22, had been working for the past three months for the Frankfurt-based European Pressphoto Agency (EPA). He previously worked for the US news agency, the Associated Press (AP). Reached in Frankfurt, EPA editor Cengiz Seren said four gunmen were waiting for him outside his home and shot him in cold blood before he could flee. Iraq continues to be one of the most dangerous places in the world for the news media. At least 29 journalists and 15 other media workers have been killed there since the war began in March 2003. The number killed since the start of 2004 is 29, of whom 23 were Iraqis.