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The International
Federation of Journalists, joined by the Iraqi
Journalists Syndicate and the Kurdish Journalists
Syndicate, today launched a global campaign to end
the terrifying ordeal of journalists in Iraq where
at least 129 media staff have been killed and
hundreds more injured or disabled in what has become
the deadliest media war in modern history.
The General Secretary of the IFJ, Aidan White,
speaking to journalists in Dubai, said the campaign
was backed by journalists’ groups across the Middle
East and North Africa, as well as throughout the
IFJ’s international network.
“Iraqi journalists are the real heroes of this war,”
said White. “Every day they take risks and make
sacrifices that must be recognised in the crucial
fight for freedom and democracy in Iraq,” he said.
On June 15th – Iraq’s National Day of the Press –
there will be demonstrations in Iraq and around the
region to highlight what the IFJ says is the
“unspeakable suffering” of media in a country where
press freedom is close to extinction because of
ruthless extremists and targeting of journalists by
warring factions.
“On this day journalists around the world will
honour the memory of those we have lost, we will
focus attention on the urgent humanitarian needs of
survivors and grieving families, and we will
reinforce our demands for action from governments to
reduce the risks journalists face,” he said.
The campaign was initiated by a meeting of the IFJ’s
Middle East affiliates in Beirut last month and has
the backing of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, the
Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate in Iraq, the
Federation of Arab Journalists and the Association
of Journalists in the United Arab Emirates, which
hosted the launch conference in Dubai’s Media City.
“No journalist and no journalists’ group in the
world is untouched by the routine intimidation of
media and the rising death toll in Iraq,” said
White. “We mourn, but we also demand action to end
this slaughter.”
The IFJ has counted 129 media victims since the US
invasion of Iraq in 2003, while the satellite
channel Al-Arabiya puts the figure at 144. Other
groups, who do not include killed media support
staff in their numbers, have lower figures.
“But this is not a numbers game,” said White. “What
is undeniable is that more media staff have been
murdered and killed in this war than in any other
modern conflict. And most of the victims, more than
100, are Iraqis.”
White said that while some media were able to pull
their people out of the country to reduce the risks,
leaving was not an option for Iraqis or for major
media. Foreign media reporting in Iraq rely heavily
upon Iraqi journalists to provide the vital
information, film footage and editorial material
that make up much of the world’s daily media
coverage of the war, he said.
White said that the June 15th Day of Action had
three aims:
To provide humanitarian assistance through an
international appeal in support of the Iraqi
journalists who are the victims of violence and
their families;
To express solidarity through the creation of an
International Committee for the Defence of
Journalists in Iraq backed by national journalists’
unions and associations around the world;
To put added pressure on the international community
to do more to assist Iraqi journalists.
On that day an appeal backed by more than 100
leaders of unions, associations and syndicates of
journalists will publicise the crisis and will send
messages of support to the IFJ’s two Iraqi
affiliates as well as calling on their own
governments to intervene to press for more action
over a media crisis which says the IFJ remains
largely invisible to many politicians.
Yesterday, speaking in a televised debate in Abu
Dhabi, White challenged Iraq Foreign Minister
Hoshayar Zebari who denied Iraqi journalists were
being targeted. “It is just not acceptable to deny
the intolerable reality of journalists selectively
picked out of crowds and shot or devastating car
bombs deliberately placed outside media houses,” he
said.
“What we need from governments, in Baghdad,
Washington and London, and collectively gathered in
New York, is less denial and more recognition that
they can do more to highlight this crisis and to
help Iraqi journalists.”
For more information please contact +32 2 235 22 11
The IFJ represents more than 500,000 journalists in
over 110 countries
www.ifj.org
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