- BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- With
casualties mounting in Iraq, jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming more aggressive
in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict.
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- 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.
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- Although the number of incidents involving soldiers and
journalists is difficult to gauge, anecdotal evidence suggests it has risen
sharply the past two months.
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- The president of the Associated Press Managing Editors,
an association of editors at AP's more than 1,700 newspapers in the United
States and Canada, sent a protest letter to the Pentagon on Wednesday urging
officials to "immediately take the steps to end such confrontations."
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- "The effect has been to deprive the American public
of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast stations and online
news operations," wrote Stuart Wilk, managing editor of The Dallas
Morning News.
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- In October, the Belgium-based International Federation
of Journalists, which includes unions representing 500,000 journalists
in more than 100 countries, complained of increased harassment of reporters,
including beatings of some, since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
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- "Guidance has been passed to units throughout the
coalition explicitly stating that reporters are not to be interfered with
or cameras and films seized," said Maj. William Thurmond at the Coalition
Press and Information Center.
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- "Does that take place all the time? No." Thurmond
said. "We are aware that individual soldiers have not followed those
instructions."
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- In Washington, representatives of 30 media organizations
wrote to the Pentagon expressing their dismay about the harassment of journalists
in Iraq. In a letter to Larry Di Rita, acting assistant secretary of defense,
the Washington bureau chiefs pointed out that the Pentagon's own guidance
to troops says "edia products will not be confiscated or otherwise
impounded."
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- The military command says it's working to cut down on
incidents by issuing credentials and badges to journalists. This system
worked well with embedded reporters during the war, when confrontations
were almost unheard of.
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- But as coalition forces come under increasing pressure
from guerrilla attacks - 37 American soldiers have died so far in November
- signs of stress are evident.
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- A number of journalists, particularly Iraqis and other
Arabs working for foreign media organizations, say they are now routinely
threatened at gunpoint if they try to film the aftermath of guerrilla attacks.
Some have been arrested and held for short periods.
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- Sami Awad, a Lebanese cameraman working as a freelancer
for a German TV network, said that when his crew tried to check out a report
Friday about hand grenades being thrown at a U.S. patrol in Baghdad, they
encountered a roadblock at which soldiers told him to go ahead and film.
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- But as the crew proceeded down the street, more soldiers
appeared, threw them to the ground and pointed their weapons at their heads,
Awad said.
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- "They checked our identity badges and then let us
go, saying they thought we were with Al-Jazeera," he said. "Each
group of soldiers acts on its own, and most of them are very scared and
inexperienced."
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- Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based television network, has repeatedly
been accused by U.S. officials of biased reporting, charges the station
denies.
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- Two weeks ago, coalition troops detained two Al-Jazeera
staffers covering an explosion at a police station in western Baghdad on
allegations they had prior knowledge of the car bombing. Al-Jazeera dismissed
the charges as ridiculous, and the men were later freed.
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- A TV news producer in Baghdad for a major U.S. television
network said his crews had been threatened at least 10 times in recent
weeks with confiscation of their equipment. He asked not to be quoted by
name because of his company's policy against giving interviews to other
media.
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- Journalists have been shot at several times by U.S. troops,
including an incident in August in which Reuters television cameraman Mazen
Dana was killed while videotaping near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts
of Baghdad following a mortar attack.
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- The military later said the troops had mistaken Dana's
camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. An investigation concluded
the soldiers "acted within the rules of engagement," although
the U.S. Army has never publicly announced those rules, citing security
reasons.
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- In September, U.S. soldiers shot up the car of an Associated
Press photographer in Khaldiyah after an American convoy was hit with a
roadside bomb. The photographer, Karim Kadim, and his Iraqi driver jumped
from the car and ran for cover when they saw a tank aim at them. They were
shot at with a machine gun as they ran and the car was badly damaged. Neither
man was hurt.
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- In the same incident, a U.S. tank's .50-caliber machine
gun fired at AP correspondent Tarek al-Issawi as he viewed the scene from
a nearby rooftop. He also escaped injury.
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- AP filed a protest and U.S. commanders promised to investigate,
but no information on the results of the probe has been received.
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- After a series of missile and rocket attacks in recent
weeks on the so-called "Green Zone" in central Baghdad that houses
the U.S.-led occupation administration, security precautions there have
been tightened to unprecedented levels.
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- As a result, journalists invited to cover news conferences
at the press center are now required to arrive 90 minutes early to be frisked
and have their equipment checked by sniffer dogs. But guards can announce
without warning that the building is closed, blocking those still waiting
in line outside from entering.
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- "If you don't like the way the military works, I
can't help you," Capt. William Pickett told a group of reporters left
standing outside the gate after being invited to cover a briefing Monday
with Australia's defense minister, Robert Hill.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3381543,00.html
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