Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari

The war in Iraq, the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history, kept the country at the top of the world’s most dangerous places for the press. Thirty-two journalists and 12 media support staffers were killed during the year, bringing the record toll to 174 media personnel killed in the line of duty since the U.S. invasion of March 2003. Improving security conditions in parts of the country in 2007 may have had an effect on media deaths, as most occurred in the first seven months of the year.

September 27, 2007

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Via facsimile: 202-224-2417

Senator Gordon H. Smith
Via facsimile: 202-228-3937

Dear Sens. Kennedy and Smith,

I am writing to you as executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists to express our concern for the safety of Iraqi journalists and others who now may find themselves imperiled for having helped U.S.-based and U.S.-backed media organizations report the news from Iraq. We would therefore like to express our support for the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act Senate Amendment #2872 to H.R. 1585 Department of Defense Authorization, which you recently co-sponsored. CPJ is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide and the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

New York, June 18, 2007—The body of an Iraqi newspaper editor was found in Baghdad’s main morgue on Sunday, four days after he was abducted by armed men. Filaih Wuday Mijthab, who worked with the government-run daily Al-Sabah, suffered bullet wounds to the head, the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq reported.

There has been no claim of responsibility. Insurgent and other armed groups have frequently targeted Al-Sabah and other state-run media because of their ties to the U.S.-supported Iraqi government. The New York Times reported on Monday that Mijthab could have been targeted by Shiite groups because of his past work for state-run media under the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mijthab, like many of the newspaper’s employees, had received numerous telephone threats while working at Al-Sabah, the paper reported.

New York, June 7, 2007—An Iraqi journalist who had been abducted, shot and threatened with death was slain in Mosul today by unidentified gunmen who answered her cell phone after the killing and told the caller "she went to hell."

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the murder of Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari, 44, a correspondent for the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) and the independent news agency Aswat al-Iraq and a contributor to a number of other Iraqi media outlets. She also was a journalist trainee and correspondent for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an organization that trains local journalists in war coverage.