Dear Mr. Bremer:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the fact
that U.S. forces have detained Said Abu Taleb and Soheil Kareemi, two
journalists with Iranian State Television, since July 1.
Iranian journalists in Iran's capital, Tehran, and an Iranian journalist
in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, told CPJ that both men were working on a
documentary film for Iran's Channel 2 television in Diwaniyah, a town
in southern Iraq. Gholem Reza Kutchak, Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting
chief in Baghdad, was quoted in news reports as saying that on July
7, U.S. forces confiscated the journalists' belongings from a hotel
in Karbala, in southern Iraq.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported today that a coalition spokesman
told reporters that the journalists were being held for committing "security
violations" and that they were "not acting in a journalistic capacity
when they were arrested." However, CPJ would like to know the basis
for those accusations. CPJ has yet to receive a response from Centcom
for information regarding the detention of these journalists.
We are also investigating reports that U.S. troops have recently harassed
other journalists. For example, AFP reported yesterday that Japanese
cameraman Kazutaka Sato, of the independent news outlet Japan Press,
was beaten and briefly detained by U.S. troops in Baghdad after he filmed
the bodies of people being removed from a car after they were killed
in a raid by U.S. forces. During the weekend, other wire services reported
that U.S. troops briefly detained four Turkish journalists and a correspondent
with the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
As an independent organization of journalists dedicated to defending
our colleagues worldwide, CPJ urgently requests that you make public
the basis upon which these accusations against Said Abu Taleb and Soheil
Kareemi have been made. In addition, we ask that you provide us with
any information about the detentions of other reporters in Iraq.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We look forward
to your response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
