Dear General Franks:
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.
At the time of the incident, the journalists had been heading south
from Baghdad after U.S forces told some of them they could not work
in the area without proper protection against chemical attack. The journalists
reported that men they believed to be military police ordered them to
lie on the ground face down. Castro alleged that the police kicked the
journalists' hands, kept them on the ground for more than 30 minutes,
and accused them of being terrorists or spies. Their cameras, phones,
and car were confiscated, and they were later forced to stay in their
car for several hours.
At one point, Castro asked the troops if the journalists could phone
their families. In response, the soldiers threw him to the ground, placed
their feet on his hands, neck, and back, and then one of the soldiers
kicked him in the ribs. He was then handcuffed, brought near a truck
in the troop encampment, and forced to sit on the ground before being
returned to the group. Castro said a first lieutenant by the last name
Shaw later apologized, saying, "Try to understand, my men are trained
like dogs—they just know how to attack. No hard feelings. God bless
you." When the journalists arrived in Kuwait, their material was returned
to them and they were allowed to leave after several hours.
In a separate incident, U.S. troops detained Christian Science Monitor
reporter Phillip Smucker and escorted him out of southern Iraq to Kuwait
on March 27. Smucker, a veteran foreign correspondent who was also reporting
for London's Daily Telegraph, had been traveling in southern
Iraq as an independent journalist with a U.S. Marines unit. Megan Fox,
a spokeswoman for the Office of Public Affairs in the Defense Department,
said that during an interview Smucker gave to CNN on March 26, the journalist
had revealed information that "could harm him and the unit."
Monitor editor Paul Van Slambrouck wrote shortly after the incident
that he had "read the transcript of the CNN interview and it does not
appear to us that he disclosed anything that wasn't already widely available
in maps and in U.S. and British radio, newspaper, and television reports
in that same news cycle." Slambrouck added that Smucker had conducted
a similar interview with the U.S. National Public Radio the previous
day without incident. While leaving Iraq under military escort, Smucker
was denied contact with his newspaper and family, according to The
Washington Post.
While we recognize that embedded journalists have been given special
access to coalition troops, we are extremely concerned by these reports
of harassment and violence against independent journalists. As a nonpartisan
organization of journalists dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide,
we call on you to launch an immediate and thorough investigation into
these incidents and to make the findings public. We reiterate our call
that U.S. troops allow journalists to fulfill their professional duties
freely, without hindrance.
We await your response.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Acting Director
