(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Portuguese journalist Carlos Raleiras, who was attacked and kidnapped by armed men in southern Iraq, near the Kuwaiti border, on 14 November 2003. The organisation also appealed to the British military forces in charge of the region to deploy all necessary resources to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Portuguese journalist Carlos Raleiras, who was attacked and kidnapped by armed men in southern Iraq, near the Kuwaiti border, on 14 November 2003.
The organisation also appealed to the British military forces in charge of the region to deploy all necessary resources to track down Raleiras and his abductors.
“We are very concerned about this journalist’s fate,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. “The security conditions are extremely worrying for all journalists working in Iraq and we call on all parties there -armies from Western countries, armed groups and groups of bandits – to respect members of the press, who are observers and neutral witnesses on assignment.”
A special correspondent with the Portuguese commercial radio station TSF, Raleiras was riding in a convoy of several vehicles without military protection that was attacked by an unidentified group of armed men as it was heading towards the southern city of Basra.
He reached the news agency LUSA in Lisbon by telephone several hours after going missing and said, “I have been kidnapped. The situation is very complicated. I cannot talk. I am using my radio. I have to hang up.”
Maria Joao Ruela, another Portuguese journalist who is a correspondent for the commercial television station SIC, was wounded in the leg in the attack but her condition is not believed to be critical.
