Special Report
Permission to Fire: CPJ investigates the attack on the Palestine Hotel
May 27, 2003
Two journalists wounded in grenade attack
December 11, 2003
CPJ condemns closure of Arab news channel
November 24, 2003
Reporter abducted, journalist shot
November 14, 2003
Iranian journalists released after four months
November 3, 2003
Editor killed
October 28, 2003
CPJ requests information from U.S. Defense Department about journalists killed by U.S. forces
October 8, 2003
Explosive device rocks NBC News Baghdad bureau
September 25, 2003
TV stations sancationed
September 23, 2003
Los Angeles Times correspondant dies in Baghdad
September 23, 2003
CPJ dismayed by U.S. investigation into killing of Reuters cameraman
September 22, 2003
Correspondent and camerman detained
September 11, 2003
CPJ calls for a full and public investigation into journalist's death
August 18, 2003
Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana killed in Baghdad
August 17, 2003
Journalist briefly detained and handcuffed
August 13, 2003
Al-Jazeera cameraman and assistant wounded during grenade attack
August 11, 2003
CPJ calls on U.S. for more information about detained Iranian journalists
July 29, 2003
Free-lance cameraman killed
July 7, 2003
Boston Globe correspondent and translator killed in car accident
May 9—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply saddened by the death of Elizabeth Neuffer, a veteran foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe, and her translator, who were killed today in a car accident while on assignment in Iraq.
According to The Boston Globe, the 46-year-old Neuffer died “when the car in which she was a passenger apparently struck a guardrail near the town of Samarra, about halfway between Tikrit and Baghdad.” The Globe said Neuffer had been returning to Baghdad from Tikrit, where she had spent the night working on a story.
Click here to read more.
Camerawoman dies from injuries sustained in car accident
Cabrera is the first female journalist to die in Iraq
April 15—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of Argentine camerawoman Veronica Cabrera. She is the first female journalist to die while covering the war in Iraq. Her death brings the total number of journalists killed in this conflict to 13.
Cabrera, who was traveling with fellow America TV correspondent Mario Podestá, died today in a Baghdad hospital from injuries she sustained yesterday in a car accident on the highway between Amman, Jordan, and the Iraqi capital. Podestá was killed instantly in the crash. [Click here to read yesterday's alert.]
Eduardo Cura, the station's news director, told CPJ that Podestá and Cabrera were part of a convoy of journalists trying to get into Baghdad before nightfall. Cura said that a tire explosion in the car in which the two journalists were traveling caused the accident.
CPJ is investigating reports that gunfire was heard in the vicinity just before the accident happened.
Journalist killed in car accident in Iraq
Security situation for media remains precarious
April 14—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of Mario Podestá, a veteran free-lance Argentine war correspondent on assignment for the Argentine television station America TV, who was killed today in a car accident on the highway between Amman, Jordan, and Baghdad.
Eduardo Cura, the station's news director, told CPJ that Podesta was part of a convoy of journalists trying to get into Baghdad before nightfall. Cura said that a tire explosion in the car where Podestá and camerawoman Veronica Cabrera were traveling caused the accident, which occurred about 24 miles outside the Iraqi capital. Podestá died instantly, he said, and his body was taken to the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
Cabrera, who was injured in the accident, was sent to a hospital near Baghdad for treatment. CPJ is investigating reports that gunfire was heard in the vicinity just before the accident happened.
Click here to read more.
Abu Dhabi TV journalists, Polish reporters reported safe
April 9—Some thirty journalists from Abu Dhabi TV, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, are safe after being trapped in cross fire between coalition and Iraqi forces at Abu Dhabi's Baghdad office for more than 24 hours, Abu Dhabi TV officials told CPJ today. The journalists, who were joined by several employees of Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite channel, had taken refuge yesterday morning during fighting in which U.S. missiles damaged Al-Jazeera's office and killed one of its correspondents. At the time, Abu Dhabi TV reporters also came under fire and their nearby office was damaged.
Abu Dhabi TV director Muhammad Dourached said that since fighting has subsided, the journalists can move around the area and have gone back on the air.
In a separate development yesterday, two Polish journalists who had disappeared in central Iraq on Monday, April 7, after five armed Iraqis stopped them at a checkpoint near the town of Al-Hilla are now safe.
Marcin Firlej, a reporter for the private TVN24 news channel, and Jacek Kaczmarek, with Polish Public Radio, were traveling with two other cars carrying Polish journalists when they were stopped at a checkpoint about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Two of the cars managed to escape despite coming under fire from the armed Iraqis. No one was injured. The journalists were detained at a school in Al-Hilla.
TVN24 news producer Aleksandra Karasimsak told CPJ that the journalists were able to escape with the help of an Iraqi teacher who gave the two the keys to their car. Firlej and Kaczmarek are now with U.S. soldiers in Najaf.
CPJ condemns journalists' deaths in Iraq
Group calls for an investigation
April 8—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sent a letter today to U.S. secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld expressing concern about U.S. military strikes against known media locations in Baghdad this morning that left three journalists dead and several wounded. CPJ called for an “immediate and thorough investigation into these incidents” and for the findings to be made public.
This morning, Baghdad time, U.S. air strikes severely damaged the Baghdad office of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite network, killing journalist Taraq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera cameraman Zouhair al-Iraqi was injured in the blast, according to the station. Moments later, another explosion damaged the nearby office of Abu Dhabi TV.
Click here to read more.
CPJ mourns loss of two journalists killed in Iraq
Two other correspondents are missing
April 7—Two journalists embedded with U.S. forces in Iraq were killed this afternoon, bringing to six the total number of journalists killed in action during the current war in Iraq.
The Spanish daily El Mundo reported that its correspondent Julio Anguita Parrado died in an Iraqi missile attack while he accompanied the U.S. Army’s Third infantry south of Baghdad. The paper said Parrado died in the attack along with German reporter Christian Liebig of the weekly Focus magazine and two U.S. soldiers.
Click here to read more.
CPJ sends letter to Gen. Tommy Franks about mistreatment of journalists by U.S. forces
April 7—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about two recent incidents in which U.S. forces allegedly interfered with and mistreated journalists working in Iraq.
On March 25, four "nonembedded," or independent, journalists—Dan Scemama, of Israel's Channel One television; Boaz Bizmuth, of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot; and Radio Televisão Portuguesa's Luis Castro and Victor Silva—were detained by U.S. troops near Baghdad and forced to leave the country. The men had been previously traveling alongside U.S. troops, who detained the journalists at gunpoint about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Baghdad, some of the journalists told CPJ. They said the troops accused them of spying and detained them for more than 48 hours without food before flying them to a military base in Kuwait by helicopter.
Click here to read more.
BBC translator killed
U.S. correspondent dies
April 6—CPJ is saddened by the death of Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, a translator who was working for the BBC when he was killed today in northern Iraq in a “friendly fire” incident after a U.S. warplane dropped a bomb on a convoy of Kurdish soldiers who were traveling close to city of Mosul.
Two BBC journalists were also injured, veteran correspondent John Simpson and producer Tom Giles. According to press reports, at least 18 people were killed in the incident, including members of U.S. Special Forces who were traveling with the convoy. U.S. Central Command in Qatar is investigating the incident.
Speaking to the BBC today, Simpson said he received shrapnel wounds to his ear, while Giles suffered an injury to his foot. The crew was transported to a U.S. hospital in Arbil, a town in northern Iraq, for treatment.
CPJ also mourns the death of NBC correspondent David Bloom, who died today of a pulmonary embolism while traveling with the U.S. 3rd Army Infantry Division, according to NBC. The embedded journalist was 39 years old.
CPJ mourns the death of Atlantic Monthly editor Michael Kelly
April 4—Michael Kelly, editor-at-large of the Atlantic Monthly and a columnist with the Washington Post, was killed today while traveling with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, according to a statement from the Washington Post.
“We mourn the loss of our colleague Michael Kelly,” said CPJ acting director Joel Simon. “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his family, loved ones, and colleagues.”
Kelly, who had also served as the editor of the New Republic and the National Journal, is the first American journalist killed while covering the war.
Three other journalists have been killed—Kaveh Golestan, an Iranian free-lance cameraman working for the BBC; ITV news correspondent Terry Lloyd; and Paul Moran, a free-lance cameraman for Australia’s ABC News. Last week, a fourth journalist was found dead in northern Iraq after apparently falling off a hotel roof.
Missing journalist's wife demands more information
Al-Jazeera suspends Baghdad coverage; Iraqis fail to renew 50 journalists' credentials
April 3—During a NATO press conference today in Brussels, Belgium, Fabienne Nerac urged U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell to provide more information on her missing husband, ITV cameraman Fred Nerac.
"I give you my personal promise we will do everything we can to find out what happened," Powell told her, according to the BBC.
Nerac and translator Hussein Othman have been missing since March 22, when their marked press vehicle reportedly came under fire from coalition and Iraqi forces outside the southern Iraqi city of Basra. ITV correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed in the incident.
Click here to read more.
BBC cameraman killed in Iraq
April 2—Kaveh Golestan, an Iranian free-lance cameraman on assignment for the BBC, was killed today in northern Iraq after stepping on a land mine, the BBC confirmed.
Golestan accidentally detonated the mine when he exited his car near the town of Kifri, John Morrissey of the BBC’s foreign desk told CPJ. The cameraman was traveling as part of a four-person BBC crew that included Tehran, Iran, bureau chief Jim Muir, producer Stuart Hughes, and a translator. Hughes’ foot was injured and later treated by U.S. military medics. Muir and the translator suffered light cuts, Morrissey said.
Click here to read more.
Four missing journalists in Iraq are safe in Jordan
CPJ remains concerned about fate of ITV cameraman and translator
April 1—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased that four journalists, who were last seen in Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel on March 24, are now safe in Jordan.
Free-lance photographer Molly Bingham; Johan Rydeng Spanner, a free-lance photographer with the Danish daily Jyllands Posten; and correspondent Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman, both with Newsday are in Jordan, headed to Amman.
CPJ received word of Bingham’s release from her mother, who confirmed that her daughter was safe and traveling with Spanner and the Newsday journalists.
According to Newsday, McAllester told his editors, “We are fine. We are well.” He said that Iraqi authorities handcuffed the journalists and took them to a prison. “They were interrogated several times by Iraqi intelligence officials who suspected they may have been American spies—something [the journalists] adamantly denied,” reported Newsday.
Click here to read more.
Iraqi officials may have detained Newsday journalists
March 30—Newsday correspondent Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman may have been detained by Iraqi authorities, said editors at the U.S.-based daily. McAllester and Saman were last seen in Baghdad on March 24.
Meanwhile, four other journalists remain missing. Johan Rydeng Spanner, a free-lance photographer with the Danish daily Jyllands Posten, and Molly Bingham, a U.S. free-lance photographer, were last seen in Baghdad nearly a week ago being escorted by Iraqi officials from the Palestine Hotel. And ITV News cameraman Fred Nerac and translator Hussein Othman were last seen in southern Iraq on March 22 when their car came under apparent coalition forces fire.
Click here to read more.
CPJ sends letter to Rumsfeld about U.S. bombing of Iraqi TV
March 28—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sent a letter today to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld requesting information about the U.S. bombing of Iraqi state television facilities in Baghdad earlier this week.
The group expressed concern that the Pentagon may have violated international humanitarian law in targeting these facilities and reminded the secretary that broadcast media are protected from attack under the Geneva Conventions and cannot be targeted unless they are used for military purposes.
Click here to read more.
Group of journalists missing in Baghdad
Al-Jazeera barred from Nasdaq
March 26—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the safety of a group of at least three journalists in Baghdad who have reportedly been expelled from the country.
Newsday reporter Matt McAllester and photographer Moises Saman were last heard from Monday evening. Molly Bingham, a freelance photographer, is also missing. There were conflicting reports that Iraqi officials took the three journalists from the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad, telling them they were being expelled from the country allegedly because of visa problems. Some journalists in Baghdad reported that the journalists were put on buses headed for Damascus, Syria. Others said the bus was headed to Amman, Jordan. However, as of this evening, the journalists remain missing.
Click here to read more.
CPJ investigating bombing of Iraqi television facility
March 26—Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is currently investigating the U.S. and coalition forces' bombing last night (U.S. time) of Iraqi state-run television facilities.
According to The Associated Press (AP), last night's attack knocked Iraq's 24-hour satellite channel, which broadcasts outside the country, off the air for eight hours. Domestic television resumed broadcasting this morning as scheduled, the AP reported.
Click here to read more.
Al-Jazeera correspondents' credentials revoked
March 25—New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has revoked the credentials of two reporters from the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera.
According to NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia, the press accreditation of Al-Jazeera's Ammar Shankari and his colleague Ramzi Shiber was canceled on Monday, March 24.
Pellecchia said the decision was an effort to reduce the number of journalists on the stock exchange floor and give priority to financial networks and their reporters. He also said the decision to reduce the number of journalists on the floor stemmed in part from security considerations.
Click here to read more.
Croatian journalist expelled from Iraq
March 24—Iraqi officials expelled a Croatian free-lance journalist from Baghdad yesterday after he conducted a live interview with CNN, which was banished from Iraq last week.
Robert Valdec, who had been in Baghdad for three weeks reporting for the Croatian Commercial Network, the Serbian Independent Network, the Bosnian Independent Network, and a variety of other Balkan news outlets, was reprimanded and told to leave the city after speaking on air with CNN from his hotel room on Saturday, March 22.
Click here to read more.
ITN correspondent confirmed dead
Two other crew members missing
March 23—Veteran ITV News correspondent Terry Lloyd, who disappeared in southern Iraq yesterday, is dead, according to the British television network ITN, which produces ITV News.
“There is now sufficient evidence to believe that ITV News Correspondent Terry Lloyd, 50, was killed in an incident on the Southern Iraq war front yesterday,” ITN’s Web site reported. ITN said it believed that the journalist’s body was in a hospital in Basra, which is still under Iraqi control.
ITN did not release the details of Lloyd’s death, but spokeswoman Katie Perrior told CPJ that their statement was based on information received from numerous sources in southern Iraq and at the Iraqi hospital in Basra, where Lloyd’s ID was found.
Click here to read more.
Newsweek reporter comes under Iraqi gunfire
March 22—Newsweek reporter Scott Johnson came under Iraqi troop gunfire today while traveling in southern Iraq. Johnson, who is not embedded with U.S. troops, had been traveling toward the Iraqi city of Al-Nasiriyah, where he came across a U.S. army convoy. Johnson drove ahead of the convoy and came across Iraqi soldiers who opened fire on his car. The car spun out and flipped over, hitting a lamppost. Johnson survived and linked up with the U.S. convoy.
To read Anderson's account click here.
Journalist killed in northern Iraq
Other journalists missing, detained as hostilities intensify
March 22—An Australian journalist was killed, and several British journalists disappeared today while covering escalating hostilities in Iraq.
Free-lance Australian cameraman Paul Moran, who was on assignment for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was killed today in an apparent suicide bombing when a man detonated a car at a checkpoint in northeastern Iraq. Another Australian journalist, ABC correspondent Eric Campbell, was injured in the incident.
Click here to read more.
CNN crew expelled from Iraq
March 21—Iraqi officials today expelled the U.S. news network CNN from the capital, Baghdad. Correspondents Nic Robertson and Rym Barhimi, as well as a producer and cameraman, were ordered to leave the country and will depart this evening for Jordan, CPJ sources confirmed.
Click here to read more.
CPJ concerned about possible shielding
March 20—International journalists evacuated the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad this morning after receiving reports that the hotel was a likely target of a U.S. air strike. One journalist received a phone call from a Western government official warning journalists to leave the hotel immediately. At least one U.S. media outlet was warned by the Pentagon that the Al-Rashid was not safe.
Pentagon spokespeople would neither confirm nor deny that the hotel was a target and said only that Baghdad was a dangerous place for journalists.
Click here to read more.
CPJ reiterates concern for safety of reporters covering conflict in Baghdad
March 19—With a U.S.-led military attack against Iraq imminent, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) remains extremely concerned about the safety of reporters currently operating in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
Although many international journalists have left Baghdad, dozens remain in the city poised to cover the conflict. Most are confined to the Al-Rashid Hotel, the Palestine Meridien Hotel, and the Al-Hamra Hotel. Television broadcasters are only permitted to file from the Information Ministry, which many fear will be targeted by the U.S. military.
Click here to read the article.
Joel Campagna on "Media Concerns About Covering the War" in The Boston Globe
March 19—The Pentagon insists that a war against Iraq could be the best-covered conflict in recent history. The plan to ''embed'' more than 500 reporters with front-line troops will give journalists their best access since Vietnam. But will they really be able to cover fighting more freely than in the past? Perhaps. However, much depends on the Pentagon's attitude toward the many journalists who will report independently, outside the embed system. So far, the media have embraced the embed plan while quietly acknowledging concerns about reporters' ability to file timely stories, movement restrictions, and self-censorship that may result from living with a military unit.
Click here to read the article.
Bush tells journalists to leave Iraq
March 18—In his nationally televised address last night, President George W. Bush said that journalists should exit Iraq immediately as the U.S.-imposed 48 hour deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave the country approaches. While some news organizations have begun pulling their reporters from Baghdad, several journalists plan to stay on.
In a March 6 letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, CPJ wrote that warnings to journalists from U.S. officials about the dangers of operating in Iraq during conflict "do not absolve U.S. forces of their responsibility to avoid endangering media operating in known locations."
Click here for a transcript of President Bush's SPEECH.
Click here to read a Boston Globe article about reporters in Baghdad.
Click here to read CPJ's letter to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.
Iraq replaces "minders" with intelligence operatives
March 17—The New York Times reported today that Iraqi officials are replacing some of the government "minders" for foreign journalists with intelligence operatives. "Officials said the decision reflected high-level frustration with the chaotic arrangements at the ministry, rather than any determination to tighten the controls on visiting reporters," the newspaper reported. "Still, officials at the ministry acknowledged that tensions were rising rapidly. After one ill-tempered exchange with a reporter, one official apologized, saying Iraqis in government jobs were becoming more nervous with every passing day."
Click here to read the article.
Correspondent expelled from Iraq
March 17—Boston Globe correspondent David Filipov was expelled from Iraq yesterday for using his satellite phone to file a story from his room at the Al-Rashid hotel in Baghdad.
Iraqi regulations dictate that foreign journalists may only use their satellite phones from the press center in Baghdad, but Filipov filed a story from his hotel room on the early morning of March 13, Baghdad time. Iraqi authorities had invited Filipov and other journalists on March 12 to observe a drone weapon that Iraq possessed, and the Globe had asked Filipov to file the story.
Boston Globe foreign editor James Smith told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Filipov was notified of the decision to expel him on the afternoon of March 13, when he returned to the press center.
The correspondent, whose satellite phone was confiscated by Iraqi authorities, is now in Amman, Jordan, where he arrived on March 14.
Smith told CPJ that Filipov, who is based in Moscow, will not be sent back to Baghdad and will return to Moscow.
ABC and NBC withdraw reporters from Iraq
March 17—With the Bush administration preparing for an imminent attack on Iraq, the U.S. television networks ABC and NBC have withdrawn their reporters from Baghdad citing safety concerns, The Associated Press has reported. Correspondents from China's Xinhua news agency and Chinese state television are also departing. According to the AP, Iraq's Information Ministry has said that there are about 300 journalists currently in Iraq.
Click here to read the AP stories.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Networks-Baghdad.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html
U.S. Secretary of State urges journalists to leave Iraq
March 16—In an interview yesterday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell said that journalists and humanitarian workers in Baghdad should think about leaving Iraq.
For a full transcript, click here.
Turkey asks two U.S. journalists to leave
March 13—Turkish authorities asked two U.S. journalists to leave the country after they were accosted a few hundred yards from the northern Iraqi border at 10 p.m. on March 10. Turkey has prohibited journalists from crossing the Iraqi border without a Turkish government escort since 1996.
Turkish security forces detained Donald Bartletti, a photographer for the Los Angeles Times; Alan Weeks, a free-lance cameraman for ABC television; and Elif Esra Ural, a Turkish fixer and producer also working for ABC, as the journalists were walking along the Habur border, south of the Turkish town of Silopi.
The journalists were held overnight and released the next day after paying a fine of about $50 each. The Turkish Foreign Ministry then issued a voluntary deportation order. Both U.S. journalists will leave Turkey in the coming days. Bartletti said that he and his colleagues were treated well during their detention.
Some 300 journalists, awaiting a possible U.S.-led attack against Iraq, are in Silopi, several miles away from the Iraqi border. According to a journalist familiar with the situation, "visas through Iran and Syria are so difficult to get for Americans that the temptation to try risky avenues is being talked about continually in the Hotel Gran Oncer in Silopi."
White House spokesperson says journalists will receive advance warning to leave Iraq
March 7—In his daily press briefing today, U.S. White House spokesperson Ari Fleisher said that journalists in Iraq would be given advance warning to leave the country before any U.S. attack.
Click here for a full transcript of the briefing.
Bush tells journalists to leave Iraq if war takes place
March 7—In his news conference last night, President George W. Bush—responding to a reporter's question about possible advance warnings to weapons inspectors and humanitarian workers in Iraq before a potential military attack—urged journalists to leave Iraq if war takes place. His comment followed warnings from Pentagon officials last week that journalists' safety cannot be guaranteed in Iraq in the event of U.S. military action in the region.
In its letter to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on March 6, CPJ reminded Rumsfeld that such statements "do not absolve U.S. forces of their responsibility to avoid" targeting locations in Iraq where journalists are known to be present.
Click for the entire CNN transcript of President Bush's press conference.
CPJ send letter to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld
March 6—CPJ sent a letter to U.S. secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld today expressing concern about the implementation of the embed system and the ability of the many journalists who plan to work outside the system to conduct their reporting duties freely and safely.
Click here to read the letter.
Pentagon Warns Journalists Over Safety in Baghdad
February 27—In a February 27 meeting with Washington, D.C. bureau chiefs, Pentagon officials warned that Baghdad is “not a good place to be now, it will not be a good place to be if there is indeed military action.” Officials also briefly spoke about access for reporters not participating in the Pentagon’s “embedding” plan.
For a full transcript, click here.
Pentagon Says Iraq Using Media Buildings for Shielding
February 26—The Pentagon says that Iraq is placing ant-aircraft weapons on Iraqi media installations, where foreign journalists may congregate.
For a full transcript, click here.