Published on 26 January 2006
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Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned working conditions for journalists in Iraq after yet another journalist, Iraqi TV cameraman Mahmoud Zaal, working for the satellite station Baghdad TV, was killed on 24 January in a clash between US troops and armed men in Ramadi. It called on Iraqi and US authorities to investigate. Zaal was the 79th journalist to die in Iraq since fighting began in March 2003.
The worldwide press freedom organisation said it was “becoming ever harder and more dangerous for journalists and media staff to work in Iraq and the toll is very worrying, with four media workers killed in less than a month. We urge US troops involved in this clash to make a thorough and speedy enquiry to determine whose gunfire killed the journalist.
Zaal was caught in crossfire as he filmed an insurgent attack on two buildings occupied by US troops. Baghdad TV, owned by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said it was looking into his death, as did the US army.
Nagham Abou Zahra, a presenter on the Iraqi TV station Al Sharkiya, meanwhile jumped out of a second-floor window of her apartment building to escape a group of masked gunmen trying to kidnap her after breaking into her home. She survived the fall with many fractures.
At least 77 journalists and media assistants have been kidnapped in Iraq since March 2003. Twenty-three of them have been murdered, 40 have been released and 13 are still being held by their abductors.
