Reporters Sans Frontières

Published on 30 October 2007

Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned the murder of Shehab Mohammed al-Hitti, of the English-language newspaper Baghdad News. His death brings to 206 the number of journalists and media assistants killed in Iraq since the start of the conflict in March 2003.

The Iraq Journalistic Freedom Observatory reported that the body of the 27-year-old journalist was found in Oor, a northern district of the capital on 27 October 2007. He had been abducted the same day in al Jami’a in the west of Baghdad while on his way to work. He had worked for Baghdad News since 2003. He worked for several dailies, including al-Zaman and Babel under the previous regime.

“Shehab Mohammed al-Hitti is the 46th journalist to be murdered since the start of the year. It is not just the barbarity of armed groups that has led to his terrible toll,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “The failure to hold investigations, institute legal proceedings and to provide protection also plays a huge part. We send our condolences to the family of this journalist, whose death must not go unpunished.”

Elsewhere, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was still waiting for news of its Iraqi correspondent who disappeared in Baghdad on 22 October. The radio’s spokesperson told Reporters Without Borders that their correspondent was believed to have been kidnapped following the murder of his driver, but they had received no further news about this fate.

To date, at least 152 journalists and 54 media assistants have been murdered since March 2003. A total of 15 kidnapped Iraqi journalists have still not been released by their captors.