Free Press Threatened Again in Iraq
Yesterday in northern Iraq, four Iraqi journalists were abducted and killed in the middle of videotaping a television program about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was outraged at the violence in the city of Mosul, and has given strict orders to Iraqi security forces to “find the perpetrators” and bring them to justice for committing such a “heinous crime.”
The journalists worked for the television network Al-Sharqiya, thought to be so controversial that the Iraqi government shut down its Baghdad bureau in early 2007. Nevertheless, al-Maliki recognizes the truth in US Ambassador Crocker’s statement that “the strength and vitality of a free press is the hallmark of an open and democratic society.” He has subsequently ordered Iraqi security forces in Nineveh to look into the matter more thoroughly. Two suspects have been detained in the case and an investigation is to follow.
Haley Hackendale
