Home > Reuters says U.S. troops obstruct reporting of Iraq

Reuters says U.S. troops obstruct reporting of Iraq

by Open-Publishing - Monday 3 October 2005
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Media-Network Wars and conflicts International USA

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The conduct of U.S. troops in Iraq, including increasing
detention and accidental shootings of journalists, is preventing full coverage of
the war reaching the American public, Reuters said on Wednesday.

In a letter to Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, head of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, Reuters said U.S. forces were limiting the ability of
independent journalists to operate. The letter from Reuters Global Managing Editor
David Schlesinger called on Warner to raise widespread media concerns about the
conduct of U.S. troops with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is due to testify
to the committee on Thursday.

Schlesinger referred to "a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional
journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained, and/or illegally abused by U.S.
forces in Iraq."

He urged Warner to demand that Rumsfeld resolve these issues "in a way that best
balances the legitimate security interests of the U.S. 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 Iraq conflict since March 2003.

U.S. forces acknowledge killing three Reuters journalists, most recently soundman
Waleed Khaled who was shot by American soldiers on Aug. 28 while on assignment in
Baghdad. But the military say 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 U.S. sniper. "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,"
Schlesinger wrote.

"By limiting the ability of the media to fully and independently cover the events in
Iraq, the U.S. forces are unduly preventing U.S. citizens from receiving
information...and undermining the very freedoms the U.S. says it is seeking to
foster every day that it commits U.S. lives and U.S. dollars," the letter said.

"SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL"

Schlesinger said the U.S. 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.

The U.S. military had failed even to implement recommendations by its own inquiry
into one of the deaths, that of award-winning Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana who
was shot dead while filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in August 2003. Schlesinger
said Reuters and other reputable international news organisations were concerned by
the "sizeable and rapidly increasing number of journalists detained by U.S. forces".

He said most of these detentions had been prompted by legitimate journalistic
activity such as possessing photographs and video of insurgents, whichU.S. soldiers
assumed showed sympathy with the insurgency.

In most cases the journalists were held for long periods at Abu Ghraib or Camp Bucca
prisons before being released without charge.

At least four journalists working for international media are currently being held
without charge or legal representation in Iraq. They include two cameramen working
for Reuters and a freelance reporter who sometimes works for the agency.

A cameraman working for the U.S. network CBS has been detained since April despite
an Iraqi court saying his case does not justify prosecution. Iraq’s justice minister
has criticised the system of military detentions without charge.

Schlesinger’s letter said: "It appears as though the U.S. forces in Iraq either
completely misunderstand the role of professional journalists or do not know how to
deal with journalists in a conflict zone, or both."

Reuters and other media organisations in Iraq had repeatedly tried to hold a
dialogue with the Pentagon to establish appropriate guidelines on how to safeguard
journalists. These efforts had failed "and the situation is now spiraling out of
control", Schlesinger said.

He asked Warner to question Rumsfeld specifically about the rules of engagement
towards professional journalists, the failure to hold independent investigations
into shooting incidents and to ask what was the guidance to U.S. forces on how to
distinguish legitimate journalists from insurgents.

© Reuters 2005

Forum posts

  • Of course U.S. troops are doing horrible things. But even more horrible is that they are murdering Iraqis daily. U.S. troops are not in the U.S. because they are in Iraq, a foreign country with its own sovereignty and a marvellous history. Why are they in Iraq? Because Bush wants oil, land for military bases and a huge embassy, and land from which launch future preemtive invasions of Iran, Syria and any other that has resources. They should NOT be in Iraq in the first place, so whether or not they treat journalists badly is something of minor details beside all of the death and destruction they have caused, and are still causing in Iraq. Iraq did NOT attack us, had no plans to attacks us, had no weapons of mass destruction to attacks us, had no pilotless planes capable of bombing Crawford, Texas. Bush before he was given the Presidency by the Supreme Court had already planned to invade, but had to calculate pretexts first .. had to get up a good lie for his loyal True Believers that loved to see Muslims destroyed. His arrogance and lust for power are destroying our democracy, and he continues with daily lies and cynicism to intrude his beliefs on the entire country.