Iraqi Journalists Risking Their Lives

Journalist Omar Gharib, deputy manager of the Kirkuk branch of the Kurdistan Journalists’ Association, looked weary as he described his several run-ins with insurgents.

“They called me and told me if I don't quit journalism, I'll be kidnapped,” he recalled one threat.

But he said the intimidation has not put him off his work. In fact, he says he intends to give a lecture to journalists in Kirkuk on how to escape if they’re abducted.

While there’s no press censorship in Iraq, journalists complain of intimidation by police officers, officials – but their biggest fear is the insurgents.

Since March 2003, at least 85 journalists, cameramen and media executives have been killed in Iraq, and almost 80 per cent of the victims have been Iraqi, according to the International Federation of Journalists, IFJ.

Only last month, three Baghdad-based reporters on their way to Karbala were killed after the minibus in which they were travelling was stopped by an armed group.

Najem Abd Khudair and Ahmad Adam – both of whom worked for the Al Mada newspaper – and Al Safeer newspaper reporter Ali Jassem al-Rumi were singled out for execution when they showed their press cards to the militants. The other passengers in the vehicle were let go.

“They had their throats cut in cold-blooded and ruthless executions that are a cruel demonstration of the horrors of working in journalism in Iraq today,” said IFJ general-secretary Aidan White in a statement.

Gharib said Kurdish journalists are especially in danger, citing the murder of Kirkuk TV news announcer Saman Abdullah on April 15. Gunmen opened fired on Abdullah while he was driving down a main street in Kirkuk during the day. He was the third Kurdish journalist to be killed in two days.

“The insurgents wanted to deal him a blow one way or the other,” said Gharib.

Senior Kirkuk police official Sarhad Qadir said the security forces recognised the dangers faced by journalists and would soon provide them with flak jackets. Guns, he added, would also be made available to them when they go on particularly risky assignments.

While Saddam-era censorship is a thing of the past, journalists also continue to face problems with the authorities.

Last month, for example, Erbil police filed a lawsuit against the Hawlati newspaper because of an article published on March 30 about the arrest of a group who’d been making pornographic films. Nabaz Goran, head of the title’s office in the city, was arrested on May 19 and released after four days.

Erbil police official Farhad Kareem Saleem said he’d been detained because the story wasn’t true and damaged the reputation of the city.

Though it may not rank as intimidation, a complaint that’s often made by journalists is that officials simply won’t talk to them. Ayyub Karim, editor-in-chief of the Liberal Education newspaper, which is published in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil, said, “It isn’t much of a democracy if an official isn’t prepared to answer our questions.”

Saman Fawzi, a teacher in the College of Law in Sulimaniyah University, said that many of the problems faced by reporters stem from the media outlets they work for being linked or financed by political parties. “Newspapers are often viewed as spies – not as a source of information and news,” he said.

Fareed Zamdar, head of the Sulaimaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Association, said the group will lobby lawmakers to bolster protection for journalists in the new constitution that will be drafted by the National Assembly.

"We are going to hold symposiums and meetings with other media institutions in Kurdistan so that our views can be reflected in the new Iraqi constitution,” he said.

Some deputies have already responded positively to the journalists’ urgings. National Assembly member Nawzad Salih Raf'at said, “Through the legal committees in the Iraqi parliament, we can suggest issuing a law for organising the affairs of journalists.”

Faraydoon Jalal is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah