Latest News on Iraq from our Journalism Under Fire Tumblr
- On May 22nd, 2010, Radio Sawa’s correspondent in Hilla was attacked and beaten by the bodyguards of Karim Wahid, the former Iraqi Minister of Electricity.
- In April 2010, Alhurra’s crew were assaulted and beaten by the Iraqi police in Baghdad.
- On April 5, 2010, the Iraqi police detained and assaulted Alhurra’s crew at the Zeytoun area in Baghdad.
- On March 7, 2010, during the Iraqi Election, the police threatened Alhurra’s crew and banned them from completing their job. The police detained the crew’s camera and damaged their car.
- In August 2009, an Iraqi soldier assaulted Mahmoud Fouad, Alhurra’s correspondent in Baghdad and his crew. Fouad was going to the Parliament when an Iraqi soldier stopped him, pulled him out of his car and aimed a weapon at him and his cameraman.
- In August 2009, gunmen in cars without plates, believed to be bodyguards working for a high-ranking politician, physically attacked and verbally abused Alaa Hassan, Radio Sawa’s correspondent in Baghdad.
- In July 2009, security forces beat severely Haider Al Qutbi, Radio Sawa’s correspondent in Baghdad. The security forces confiscated Al-Qutbi’s badge and ID cards and prevented him from carrying out his duties.
- In March 2009, Kanaan Al Dulaeimi, Radio Sawa’s correspondent in Anbar-Iraq, was held for several hours and threatened by the secretary of the Anbar governor.
- In February 2009, Iraqi Prime Minister’s guards assaulted and threatened Ahmad ‘Aram, an Alhurra correspondent in Baghdad and prevented him from covering thereopening ceremony of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad.
- In October 2008, Basra police thwarted a plan to assassinate Alhurra correspondent Saad Qusay for his reporting on the Iranian influence in Basra. Qusay received a round-the-clock protection from the police at his home following the assassination plot.
- Mazen Al-Tayar, an Alhurra correspondent in Basra, Iraq, was shot April 2, 2008 by sniper fire. Mr. Al-Tayar was covering the security situation in the southern Iraqi city for Alhurra TV when he was shot in the leg. He was moved to an undisclosed location and expected to fully recover. Mr. Al-Tayar had been a reporter for Alhurra for the previous 10 months.
- On October 22, 2007 Radio Free Iraq reporter Jumana Al-Obaidi was kidnapped on her way to an interview. Her 20-year old driver, Abdullah was shot and killed trying to defend her. She was held for 11 days and released after intense negotiations aided by the U.S., Iraqi, and Czech governments. Her family is in hiding and she is still undergoing medical treatment for the physical and psychological hardships she endured.
- Nazar Abdulwahid Al-Radhi, on assignment for Radio Free Iraq, was shot and killed in the southern Iraqi city of Al-Amarah on May 30, 2007. Al-Radhi had been threatened because of his work for a “foreign agency” and his uncompromising stand against extremism. [Al-Radhi's family received an insurance award in the case in September 2008.]
- Khamail Muhsin Khalaf, a reporter for Radio Free Iraq, was abducted, tortured and murdered in Baghdad in early April 2007. Her body was found April 5, two days after she had disappeared. Khalaf, 50 years old and a mother of three, had been reporting for RFE/RL since 2004 on social and cultural life in Iraq and had received threats for some time before she was murdered.
- In March 2007 in Basra three masked men followed Radio Sawa reporter Majid al-Brekan on motorcycles behind him. Those men shot and damaged his car.
- On Dec. 11, 2006, Alhurra-Iraq journalist Omar Mohammed was shot in the leg when he left his office.
- VOA’s Baghdad office driver, Mohammed Sadiq, was shot and killed in February of 2006. A brother of the office translator was killed the following day and the VOA translator sought refuge outside the country.
- VOA journalist Alisha Ryu was targeted by the militias in late 2005 and summer of 2006. She left the country after being warned that the militias were targeting her hotel with a car bomb in retaliation for her stories on militia torture and execution sites in Baghdad.
- Alhurra Correspondent Abdul-Hussein Khazal was assassinated in early February 2005.
- VOA journalist Laurie Kassman‘s translator was killed in March 2004, along with his mother and five-year-old daughter. His widow had to seek refuge outside of the country.
Although there are many obstacles and dangers involved in broadcasting in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq, BBG still attracts wide audiences in this region. Click here to learn more.
