Jawed Ahmad

By Bob Dietz

As the United States redeploys forces to Afghanistan, and the Pakistani military moves into the country’s tribal areas, the media face enormous challenges in covering a multifaceted conflict straddling two volatile countries. Pakistani reporters cannot move freely in areas controlled by militants. International reporters in Afghanistan, at risk from kidnappers and suicide bombers, encounter daunting security challenges. And front-line reporters in both countries face pressure from all sides.

New York, February 10, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved that the U.S military has released Iraqi photographer and cameraman Ibrahim Jassam today after holding him without charge for 17 months in Iraq, but calls on the U.S. government to ensure that this release marks the end of its policy of open-ended detentions of journalists.

Jassam, left, a freelancer who worked for Reuters, was arrested on September 2, 2008, by U.S and Iraqi forces during a raid on his home in Mahmoodiya, south of Baghdad. Jassam was never charged with a crime, and no evidence against him was ever disclosed; U.S. forces made only vague assertions that he was a “threat.”

New York, March 11, 2009--After the deadly attack on freelance journalist Jawed Ahmad in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists called today for an aggressive investigation into the murder in order to put an end to a pattern of impunity that marked past journalist murders. 

Responding to media reports that Afghan journalist Jawed Ahmad was killed in a drive-by shooting in the southern city of Kandahar today, we issued the following statement...

The security situation deteriorated as reporters came under increasing threats, both political and criminal in nature. At least three foreign correspondents and two local reporters were kidnapped across the country, not only in the provincial areas that became exceedingly dangerous after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, but in the area surrounding the capital, Kabul, that had once been considered safer.

U.S. government actions against journalists abroad continued to sully the nation’s image. Authorities finally freed two long-detained journalists, one in Iraq and the other at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without ever charging them with a crime or producing any evidence to support the imprisonments. But the military continued its alarming practice of holding journalists in open-ended detention without due process. At least one journalist was being held without charge when CPJ conducted its annual census of imprisoned journalists.

Yesterday's 20-year jail sentence of Afghan journalism student Parwez Kambakhsh is getting additional coverage today. 

Each year, CPJ compiles an annual census of journalists imprisoned around the world, and every year since 2001, the U.S has figured on this list of infamy.

During this period, journalists have been imprisoned right here in this country for refusing to reveal their sources; imprisoned by the U.S. military in Iraq for long periods without charge; and, in at least two cases, declared "enemy combatants" and held at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Last week, U.S. military authorities released one such journalist, Jawed Ahmad, who was held for 11 months at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Ahmad, a field producer for the Canadian broadcaster CTV, was jailed without charge or due process.

Even worse, he claims that he was abused in U.S. custody. 

The Canadian Press has coverage of the release of CTV reporter Jawed Ahmad, who was freed from U.S. detention on September 22. The article quotes Ahmad as saying that he believes the Canadian military "told them I was a risk." The piece also mentions our alert urging the U.S. military to reveal the evidence against Ahamd when he was initially detained in February. Legal blog The BLT posted an article about his release late yesterday.

The Media Line Web site has an article about the Iraqi government's new movement to help protect journalists working in the volatile region. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has developed a plan that will help train journalists on safety measures as well as instruct them on how to better approach conflict zones while they are covering dangerous events.

Also of note in the news today, the Lusaka-based newspaper Zambia Daily Mail has a news brief about a controversy over editorials printed about Zambian presidential candidate Rupiah Banda.