Number of journalists killed in Iraq shocking, says UNESCO

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Big News Network.com Wednesday 27th April, 2005

Describing the number of media workers killed, injured or kidnapped in Iraq as "shocking," the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called for measures to improve the safety of journalists.

Concern has intensified over the last two weeks with reports of six killings of journalists prompting the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calling for safety and security for media staff and civil society to be a “top priority” for the new government.

Two Al-Hurriya television journalists were killed in suicide bombings while on their way to an assignment in Baghdad on April 14th. Producer Fadhil Hazim and cameraman Ali Ibrahim Isa were killed en route to an event honouring the new president, Jalal Talabani. They were in a car when the bombs exploded outside the Interior Ministry. Two other Al-Hurriya employees in the car, Shakir Awad and Mohammed Ibrahim, were injured.

Al-Hurriya, a station financed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has now lost three journalists in the war. Fadhil and Isa are both Iraqi; their deaths continue a 16-month trend in which the vast majority of journalist fatalities in Iraq have involved local people
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I haven't seen many reporters in Iraq lately!!!