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Kurdistan & Iraqi Journalists Call on
United Nations to Act over Media "Nightmare"
21.12.2006
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Report, International
Federation of Journalists
December 21, 2006
Journalists' leaders from Iraq today issued an
urgent appeal to the United Nations to take urgent
action over the "media nightmare" in the war-torn
country that has seen 163 journalists and media
staff killed since 2003.
Meeting in Amman, leaders of the Iraqi Journalists'
Syndicate and the Kurdistan Journalists' Syndicate,
called on the United Nations Security Council which
is this week considering a first-ever resolution on
protection of media in conflict zones, to set aside
political differences and to focus on the
humanitarian crisis that has overtaken the country's
media.
"More than ten percent of Iraq's active journalists'
community has been killed," said Aidan White,
General Secretary of the International Federation of
Journalists which convened the meeting with the
Federation of Arab Journalists. "It is a media
nightmare that requires urgent international
attention."
Moaid El Lami, General Secretary of the Iraqi
Journalists Syndicate, added: "Our colleagues are
being targeted by killers on all sides. It is an
intolerable ordeal that must be recognised by all
governments."
Even in the north of the country, where relative
calm has helped journalists to organise themselves,
the crisis has created a sense of professional unity
that has overcome national divisions.
"We are all working together to end this crisis,"
said Farhad Awni, President of the Kurdistan
Journalists' Syndicate.
"There can be no press freedom until all journalists
in Iraq can work in safe and secure conditions."
The meeting in Amman agreed a programme of action to
assist journalists in Iraq in the coming year,
including work on a new media law and trade union
development issues, but the priority remains safety.
"We need more safety training, better equipment to
protect media staff at work, and more humanitarian
aid, but most of all we need political will to bring
an end to the targeting and killings of media
people," said Aidan White.
International Federation of Journalists
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