Iraqi journalist killed - union gives reporters "life-saving" tips

Sep 29, 2007, 15:52 GMT

Baghdad - An Iraqi journalist lost his life on Saturday in a mortar attack in Mosul. At the same time, the Iraqi Journalists Union said it had geared up workshops to give reporters life-saving tips.

A police source in the northern city's police department said Abdel-Khaleq Nasser was killed near his home.

Nasser, a reporter and a union member, is the latest in a long list of journalist victims of violence since the US invasion in 2003. He was the seventh journalist to be killed this year in Mosul alone.

Last week, television journalist Jawad al-Daami, of the satellite TV station al-Baghdadiya, was shot dead in Baghdad's western suburb of al-Qadissiya, three days after the killing of Mohammed Ghanem Ahmed of radio Dar al-Salam in the northern city of Mosul.

'The plight of the Iraqi media continues to be disastrous,' the Paris-based freedom of press advocate Reporters Without Borders said in a recent statement. 'Fifty-five journalists and media assistants have been killed so far this year.'

The organization deemed Baghdad the 'most deadly city for journalists,' with 35 reporters killed in the capital this year.

Iraq's Journalists Union said it would offer security courses in collaboration with the International Journalists Union to help media workers avoid getting killed or captured by militants, especially during field reporting.

The workshops are supervised by members of both unions, and officials from Iraq's Interior and Defence Ministries. According to the local union, three institutions in Baghdad, Basra and Arbil will be formed and should recieve hundreds of reporters.

'Not a month passes without the death or the injuring of journalists,' Shihab al-Tamimy, union head, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa. 'It is horrifying and it only reflects how dangerous it is to practise journalism in this country.'

Al-Tamimy said the union had demanded the constitution and press law be amended to provide Iraqi journalists with sufficient security and to confirm the media's authority as a fourth-level power in the state.

Based on recent statistics published by the Iraqi Journalists Union, 230 media workers have been killed, including 14 women, since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 83 were kidnapped, 14 of whom are reportedly still being held.