RSF Deplores the ‘Worsening Attitude’ of US Troops Toward Journalists in I

[Judi Lynn]

Sunday, 3, August, 2003 (05, Jumada ath-Thani, 1424)

RSF Deplores the ‘Worsening Attitude’ of US Troops Toward Journalists in Iraq
Paul Michaud • Special to Arab News

PARIS, 3 August 2003 — Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), the international journalists’ rights organization, said yesterday in Paris that it “deplored the worsening attitude” of US troops toward journalists in Iraq and called on US Administrator Paul Bremer to explain exactly why two Iranian newsmen, Said Aboutaleb and Soheil Karimi, of the public TV station IRIB, have been held since July 1 for alleged “security violations.”

RSF spokesman Severine Cazes-Tschann said that “confiscations of equipment, arrests of journalists and incidents between the media and US soldiers had increased in recent days.” RSF secretary-general Robert Menard demanded that “the US-British forces must provide convincing evidence that the Iranians have violated security or else release them at once.” (snip)

(snip) IRIB’s bureau chief in Baghdad, Gholem Reza Kutchak, said his two journalists, as well as an Iraqi interpreter and a driver, were arrested on July 1 by American troops and taken to US army headquarters in the southern town of Diwaniah. They were working on a documentary around Al-Kut and Diwaniah. (snip)

(snip) Kazutaka Sato, of Japan’s Nippon Television Network, was beaten on July 27 by US soldiers in Baghdad and detained for an hour until other foreign journalists came to find him. (snip)

~~~~link~~~~

On edit:
Sorry, had trouble getting that link to work. This should fix it.
Thanks.

I've seen the source a LOT, "Arab News," "
The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily"

[joeybee12]

1. How reputable is this source?

One thing you would think the media scum is this country WOULDN'T keep hidden is abuses against their own. You know, honor among thieves.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Their own kind, at least in the case of embedded reporters,

appears to be the kind which wants to keep its job, and stay outta trouble with the _{Bush administration.}

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. You can check it with RSF

Arab News is just reporting statements from RSF, and the bush regime.

[expatriot]

2. i can verify the incident with the japanese reporter being beaten....

it was widely reported on the BBC World Report I listen to now and then.

[Rex]

4. Oh man

"RSF secretary-general Robert Menard demanded that “the US-British forces must provide convincing evidence that the Iranians have violated security or else release them at once.”

I see people from other countries STILL DON'T GET IT --- Bush and crew will do whatever they want! Law!?!?! What law??? Rules of war?!?! What rules of war???

[Voltaire99]

6. How Bremer Should Reply...

"Thank you for this opportunity to explain why journalists are shot, shelled, beaten, detained and, on a good day, merely lied to and treated like idiots by our forces in Iraq.

"We do it for a host of reasons. First of all: it just feels good, especially when you're engaged in the morally challenging hard work of killing women and children. You just can't imagine how it feels to fire blindly into a crowd that's protesting something as insipid as lack of electricity or food and water. It's hard work. Takes it out of you, in fact. After that, when some journalist asks you why you offed the peasants, it's just that much more gratifying to punch him in the face.

"Another reason we do it is because there isn't a tradition of democracy yet in Iraq. Building democracy will take time--about as long, in fact, as the oil holds out. And, as everyone knows, in a non-democratic country, journalists can't expect to be treated the same way as they are in the heaven on earth known as America. Check back with us on this one in, oh, fifty, seventy-five years.

"A third reason is that journalists from foreign countries are so much less agreeable and bubbly than American reporters. We're kind of used to the new kind, the embeddeds, the Ashleys and Judys and Skips. We like 'em to understand their place. To paraphrase our president: You reporters either understood your place, or you'll be KIA. Thank you. Class dismissed."

[mike_c]

7. excellent post...

...and welcome to DU. I'd be laughing if I weren't so depressed.

[maggrwaggr]

8. that about sums it up!

if only they were so honest

[Paschall]

9. That link is still funky. Here's the RSF press release

RSF: Two Iranian journalists arrested, other foreign media harassed, July 31, 2003

This longer report from RSF on media conditions in Iraq is also an interesting read: The Iraqi media three months after the war: a new but fragile freedom, July 23, 2003, particularly the section at the end entitled "Monitoring the CPA's restrictions."

[Judi Lynn]

10. Thank you, Paschall, for locating that article

It has all of the information I was trying to post intact.

I wouldn't have left that link collapsed, knowingly, without a warning. That has never happened before, and I'm very sorry.

The article is really intense. It's good to see it finally made it onto the board!

[Wwagsthedog]

11. Arab news

http://www.arabnews.com/

Not to dispute your source, but I'd like to point out that Arab News is the Saudi Arab English daily published in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Yes, some of their stories are interesting but be sure you understand that the government there won't allow much in the way of anti-Arab, especially Saudi, news stories. This source does have a Washington news bureau chief, Barbara Ferguson, who does USA oriented stories.