Journalists' perils in Iraq highlighted

WASHINGTON -- US military forces in Iraq have killed as many as 13 journalists since the US invasion in 2003, and are currently holding five journalists in detention without charges, press freedom organizations said yesterday.

The groups said Americans are second only to the insurgent forces in killing journalists, raising deadly obstacles for reporters who are trying to do their jobs and inform the public about events in Iraq.

The detained journalists are in legal limbo, without criminal charges filed against them, and without access to lawyers until charges are filed. Their detentions put Iraq on a par with Iran for the number of imprisoned reporters. Only China, Cuba, Burma, and Eritrea have more journalists in jail, according to Reporters Without Borders, which held a day of support yesterday for jailed journalists around the world.

Separately, the Committee to Protect Journalists held a press conference to highlight the need to protect press freedom worldwide.

Both groups have complained about what they say is an alarming decline in press freedoms during the Iraq conflict.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 58 journalists and 22 media workers -- which includes support staff such as translators and drivers -- have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war in March 2003. An estimated 66 journalists were killed covering the Vietnam conflict over two decades, and an estimated 68 during World War II.

In Iraq, insurgents are believed to be responsible for the deaths of at least 34 journalists, including five Iraqi reporters killed in the city of Mosul by unknown gunmen.

The circumstances of many deaths are unknown. But 13 deaths came at the hands of the US military, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which filed Freedom of Information Act petitions on the military investigations of the deaths.

Reporters Without Borders has counted at least 10 journalists killed by US forces.

Most of those killed were Iraqis, who are playing an increasing role for Western news outlets because of the security risks.

Both groups called for more communication between US troops and more cautious treatment of reporters at military checkpoints. They said US soldiers tend to shoot at the slightest provocation, especially at Iraqi journalists with cameras.

Military officials say that they try to prevent the shooting of civilians, but that the nature of the war, with suicide attacks, forces soldiers to react quickly to protect themselves. Some US officials have also said that some Arab journalists appeared to have advance knowledge of insurgent attacks, suggesting ties to the guerrillas.

Several military investigations have found the soldiers' actions justified. For instance, in August 2003, US troops shot Mazen Dana, an award-winning Palestinian cameraman for the Reuters news agency, after he had received US permission to film outside Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. A military investigation said the soldier who shot him acted reasonably, noting that the soldier saw a man with ''dark skin and dark hair" and mistook his camera for a grenade launcher.

US officials encourage reporters to embed with coalition troops, but say they cannot protect journalists who mix with insurgents.

''These incidents of arrests and cases of coming under fire from US troops are not related solely to members of the media," said Joel Campagna, Middle East coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. ''It represents a much larger problem -- indiscriminate use of force."

The unexplained detention of journalists has also sparked anger.

Eight accredited journalists have been detained in Iraq; three of them have been released, according to US Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, a public affairs officer with the multinational force in Iraq.

Rudisill said by e-mail that the coalition has the authority to detain anyone suspected of being a threat to security, and that detainees do not have a right to a lawyer until they are charged with a crime -- a process that can take months or might never happen at all. He said the cases against the detainees are reviewed by a board that can release them, continue to keep them in detention, or refer the case to an Iraqi judge.

The reviews take place every 90 to 120 days, he said. More than 9,000 Iraqis have been kept in continued detention after review, he said.

Rudisill declined to give details about any of the five journalists still detained.

But the secrecy has outraged many.

''This isn't the sort of legal process that should be installed in a democratic country," said Barry Moody, a Reuters editor for the Middle East. Four Reuters photographers have been killed in Iraq; two have been held without explanation.

Moody said one Iraqi cameraman working for the agency, Ali Mashhadani, was arrested in August after US troops conducted a house-to-house search and saw footage of insurgents on his camera, Moody said. According to Moody, he was taken to Abu Ghraib prison, where he was not allowed visitors for two months, and had no idea why he is being held.

Another detained Iraqi cameraman, Samir Mohammed Noor, was arrested by Iraqi troops in a similar situation, Moody said, adding that he was beaten so badly that he had to be delivered to the US detention facility in a blanket.

CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein and Majed Hameed of Al-Arabiya are also held. Rudisill said the fifth journalist in custody is Mohammed Adnan Sameer, but declined to name his employer.