From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) NUJ | 13 October 2003 Fifteen of Britain's top trade union leaders have issued a joint call for BBC Director General, Greg Dyke, to reinstate two sacked journalists. The union leaders, who include Sir Bill Morris, Tony Woodley, Billy Hayes and Michael Leahy have called for the BBC to enter talks with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and negotiate the reinstatement of two Arabic Service producers sacked by the BBC on the eve of the war in Iraq.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Stuart Wilk | Associated Press Managing Editors | 12 November 2003 Mr. Larry Di Rita Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs The Pentagon Dear Mr. Di Rita: We are writing to protest actions being taken by U.S. troops that appear intended to discourage journalists from covering the continued military action in Iraq. During the past three months, journalists have been harassed, have had their lives endangered and have had digital camera disks, videotape and other equipment confiscated.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) SLOBODAN LEKIC |AP/Yahoo | 12 November 2003 BAGHDAD, Iraq - With casualties mounting in Iraq, jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict. Media people have been detained, news equipment has been confiscated and some journalists have suffered verbal and physical abuse while trying to report on events. Although the number of incidents involving soldiers and journalists is difficult to gauge, anecdotal evidence suggests it has risen sharply the past two months.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Dima Tareq Tahboub | The Guardian | 4 October 2003 When my husband decided to go to Baghdad, he knew that I would protest. He told me that I was exaggerating the risks; that there was nothing to be afraid of because he was a reporter, an objective witness, neither on this nor that side, and because of that was protected by world protocol. He bid us farewell, apologising for having been so busy.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) | 8 September 2003 The International Federation of Journalists today condemned the arrest by Spanish officials of an Al-Jazeera Television journalist for alleged ties to al Qaeda members in what it warned “looks like developing into an international witch-hunt” against Arab-language media. On September 5, Tayseer Alouni, an Al-Jazeera reporter who had worked as a war correspondent in Kabul for the Qatar-based satellite network, was arrested by anti-terrorist police at his home in Alfacar, Spain and placed under police custody in Madrid.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Fiashra Gibbons | The Guardian | 23 August 2003 Jewish pressure groups are calling on a publisher to withdraw a children's book about a Palestinian boy growing up amid the intifada on the West Bank. A Little Piece of Ground, by the multi-award-winning author Elizabeth Laird, is a fictional account of how a 12-year-old called Karim - whose family's olive groves have been confiscated by settlers - copes when his father is stripped and humiliated by Israeli troops.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) | 18 August 2003 The International Federation of Journalists has called for an independent and open inquiry into the killing yesterday afternoon of a cameraman in Iraq by US troops, only days after the Federation accused the Pentagon of a “cynical whitewash” over a previous attack on media in which two journalists were killed. The shooting of Mazen Dana, an award-winning journalist working for the Reuters news agency, is “more tragic evidence of what appears to be casual disregard of journalists’ safety by military commanders,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Reuters | CNN | 17 August 2003 BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) -- Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, an award-winning journalist who had covered some of the world's hottest spots, has been shot dead while filming near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Eyewitnesses said Dana, 43, was shot by soldiers on an American tank as he filmed outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad. His last pictures show a U.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Rober Fisk | Independent/Information Clearing House | 30 July 2003 30 July 2003: (The Independent) A day after Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary, claimed that the Arabic Al-Jazeera television channel was "inciting violence" and "endangering the lives of American troops" in Iraq, the station's Baghdad bureau chief has written a scathing reply, complaining that in the past month his offices and staff in Iraq "
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) BBC News | BBC News | 14 July 2003 The editor of a daily Irish language newspaper has said the Northern Ireland man held by Israeli police was working as their correspondent. The man - who is in his 40s - was arrested at the weekend by Israeli security forces reportedly acting on information from UK security services. The west Belfast man was arrested near the town of Ramallah.