(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced outrage at the murder of Fakher Haydar Al-Tamimi, an Iraqi journalist who worked for several foreign media outlets including “The New York Times”. He was kidnapped and then shot in the head on 19 September 2005 in the southern city of Basra. “We are very concerned about security in Basra […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced outrage at the murder of Fakher Haydar Al-Tamimi, an Iraqi journalist who worked for several foreign media outlets including “The New York Times”. He was kidnapped and then shot in the head on 19 September 2005 in the southern city of Basra.
“We are very concerned about security in Basra as two journalists have been killed there within two months,” the organisation said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous for the press to operate in Iraq. We call on the Iraqi authorities and the US-British military coalition to carry out a rapid and thorough investigation to identify those responsible and prevent any recurrence of such tragedies.”
Tamimi was kidnapped from his home in his wife’s presence by four men in plain clothes who reportedly told her they were police and wanted to interrogate her husband. His body was found with a bullet in the head a few hours later 3 km southwest of the city. He is the 68th journalist killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 and the 19th so far in 2005.
A total of 63 journalists were killed during the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975. Two television cameramen are also missing in Iraq: Frédéric Nérac of Britain’s ITV News, missing since 22 March 2003 (see IFEX alerts of 23 March 2005, 29 June and 14 April 2004, 22 December, 16 September, and others), and Isam Hadi Muhsin Al-Shumary of Germany’s Suedostmedia, missing since 15 August 2004.
