(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has strongly condemned the 25 September 2003 blast outside a hotel housing the Baghdad bureau of the NBC television network and called for an investigation into the bombing, the first involving a United States (U.S.) news organisation’s Iraq headquarters (see IFEX alert of 25 September 2003). The organisation also voiced deep concern […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has strongly condemned the 25 September 2003 blast outside a hotel housing the Baghdad bureau of the NBC television network and called for an investigation into the bombing, the first involving a United States (U.S.) news organisation’s Iraq headquarters (see IFEX alert of 25 September 2003).
The organisation also voiced deep concern over the call to order issued by the transitional Iraqi Governing Council in the form of a series of instructions to news media operating in the country. The council decreed the new rules on 23 September at the same time as it sanctioned the Arabic TV stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya (see alert of 24 September 2003). The council appears to be opting for a threatening and repressive approach to the news media, allowing them only “conditional freedom,” RSF said.
The new instructions add little to the decree issued in June by the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, banning “incitement to violence.” They use extremely vague terms such as “inciting disorder” that could apply to almost anything. Furthermore, they do not specify the punishments for violators or whether there will be any possibility of appeal. Without endorsing the editorial line being followed by some news media in Iraq, RSF can only condemn the council’s desire to restrict and control news coverage. This will not solve the problem of the terrorist attacks, whose victims have included Iraqi authorities, Americans and the civilian population.
RSF says the news media should obviously be professional and responsible in their news reporting, and there are often limits that journalists impose on themselves or to which they adhere because they are indicated in international codes of conduct such as the “Munich Charter”. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that significant and draconian restrictions should be set by a government rather than a professional ethics commission or a press council chosen by the news media themselves and consisting of news media representatives.
RSF advises against suspending news media, closing news bureaux or expelling journalists, as this would be contrary to the promises made to the Iraqi population to respect basic freedoms, which include press freedom.
Journalists are all the more aware of the security problems in Iraq after the 25 September bombing outside the Al-Aike Hotel in Baghdad, in which journalists were for the first time among the victims of such an attack. The blast killed a hotel employee and injured two others, including NBC soundman David Moodie, who sustained a minor hand injury. NBC’s staff were evacuated from the hotel.
NBC correspondent Jim Avila said there was nothing outside the hotel to indicate there was a U.S. television network bureau inside. The network had not received any threats. It is too soon to say if the U.S. journalists were deliberately targeted, but neighbourhood residents said it was no secret that Americans and journalists were staying in the hotel.
