US forces 'out of control', says Reuters chief

[Guest guest]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1580244,00.html

 

US forces 'out of control', says Reuters chief

 

Julia Day

Wednesday September 28, 2005

 

Reuters has told the US government that American forces' conduct

towards journalists in Iraq is " spiralling out of control " and

preventing full coverage of the war reaching the public.

 

The detention and accidental shootings of journalists is limiting how

journalists can operate, wrote David Schlesinger, the Reuters global

managing editor, in a letter to Senator John Warner, head of the armed

services committee.

 

The Reuters news service chief referred to " a long parade of

disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been

killed, wrongfully detained, and/or illegally abused by US forces in

Iraq " .

 

Mr Schlesinger urged the senator to raise the concerns with Defence

Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is due to testify to the committee this

Thursday.

 

He asked Mr Warner to demand that Mr Rumsfeld resolve these issues " in

a way that best balances the legitimate security interests of the US

forces in Iraq and the equally legitimate rights of journalists in

conflict zones under international law " .

 

At least 66 journalists and media workers, most of them Iraqis, have

been killed in the country since March 2003.

 

US forces admitted killing three Reuters journalists, most recently

soundman Waleed Khaled, who was shot by American soldiers on August 28

while on assignment in Baghdad. But the military said the soldiers

were justified in opening fire. Reuters believes a fourth journalist

working for the agency, who died in Ramadi last year, was killed by a

US sniper.

 

'A serious chilling effect on the media'

 

" The worsening situation for professional journalists in Iraq directly

limits journalists' abilities to do their jobs and, more importantly,

creates a serious chilling effect on the media overall, " Mr

Schlesinger wrote.

 

" By limiting the ability of the media to fully and independently cover

the events in Iraq, the US forces are unduly preventing US citizens

from receiving information ... and undermining the very freedoms the

US says it is seeking to foster every day that it commits US lives and

US dollars. "

 

Mr Schlesinger said the US military had refused to conduct independent

and transparent investigations into the deaths of the Reuters

journalists, relying instead on inquiries by officers from the units

responsible, who had exonerated their soldiers.

 

He noted that the US military had failed to implement recommendations

by its own inquiry into the death of award-winning Palestinian

cameraman Mazen Dana, who was shot dead while filming outside Abu

Ghraib prison in August 2003.

 

He said that Reuters and other reputable international news

organisations were concerned by the " sizeable and rapidly increasing

number of journalists detained by US forces " .

 

He said detentions were prompted by legitimate journalistic activity

such as possessing photographs and video of insurgents, which US

soldiers assumed showed sympathy with the insurgency.

 

Earlier this week Reuters demanded the release of a freelance Iraqi

cameraman after a secret tribunal ordered that he be detained

indefinitely.

 

Samir Mohammed Noor, a freelance cameraman working for Reuters, was

arrested by Iraqi troops at his home in the northern town of Tal Afar

four months ago.

 

A US military spokesman has told the agency that a secret hearing held

last week had found him to be " an imperative threat to the coalition

forces and the security of Iraq " .

 

The news agency has demanded that he be released or given a chance to

defend himself in open court.

 

The US network CBS has raised concerns over the arrest of its

cameraman, Abdul Amir Younes, who was arrested in hospital in April

after he was shot by US troops.

 

CBS said it is concerned that he had no legal representation at the

hearing and has had no chance to see the evidence against him.

 

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email

editor or phone 020 7239 9857

 

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly

" for publication " .