SEPTEMBER 2005

Reuters demands release of wounded Iraq journalist

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Reuters demanded the immediate release on Monday of an Iraqi cameraman who was still being held by U.S. forces more than 24 hours after being wounded in an incident in which his soundman was killed.

Iraqi police said the news team was shot by U.S. soldiers.

The U.S. military said it was still investigating and refused to say what questions it was putting to cameraman Haider Kadhem. It would not say where in Baghdad he was held nor identify the unit holding him.

"Reuters demands the immediate release of Haider Kadhem," Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said. "We fail to understand what reason there can be for his continued detention more than a day after he was the innocent victim of an incident in which his colleague was killed."

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Whetstone, a military spokesman, said: "He is being questioned by our investigating officer." He said there were "inconsistencies" in Kadhem's statements and officers were looking into "events that led up to the incident". No military investigator, however, had contacted Reuters, whose senior staff offered a full account of the assignment on which they dispatched the journalists shortly before they were shot.

Kadhem, a 24-year-old cameraman based in the southern city of Samawa, had been in Baghdad only since Friday to train and to reinforce the Reuters news crews in the capital. He was dispatched to the Hay al-Adil district, where he was shot, after a police source called Reuters to report an incident involving police and gunmen in that area.

Soundman Waleed Khaled was buried on Monday after he was hit several times in the head and chest while driving his car, an ordinary passenger vehicle, on the assignment in western Baghdad. Kadhem was wounded in the back. Whetstone said the wound was "superficial" and he had been treated "on location".

Waleed Khaled, 35, was a veteran of reporting the conflict on the streets of Baghdad and had been a popular and jovial presence in the Reuters bureau for two years. Distraught family, colleagues and friends, numbering some 200, attended his funeral in the west of the city.

The official Iraqi police report said U.S. troops opened fire on the Reuters journalists.

Kadhem told colleagues who were briefly detained with him at the scene: "I heard shooting, looked up and saw an American sniper on the roof of the shopping centre."

A U.S. statement said: "Task Force Baghdad units responded to a terrorist attack on an Iraqi Police convoy ... which killed and wounded several Iraqi Police. One civilian was killed and another was wounded by small-arms fire during the attack."

Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based media rights group, called the shooting "extremely disturbing" and said the Reuters soundman was the 66th journalist or media assistant killed in Iraq since the invasion of 2003, three more than died in 20 years in Vietnam. "Our outrage is compounded by the fact that they arrested Kadhem, the only eyewitness, who was himself injured," it said.

Two Reuters cameramen have been killed by U.S. troops in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. A third was shot dead by a sniper in Ramadi last November in circumstances for which Reuters is still seeking an explanation from U.S. forces.

Reuters' cameraman in the city of Ramadi,(SEE BELOW) was arrested by U.S. forces three weeks ago and is being held without charge in Abu Ghraib prison. U.S. military officials have said he will face a judicial hearing shortly but have still given no access to the journalist or said what he is accused of. A military spokesman said the hearing was "probably" taking place on Monday at a secret location in Baghdad. No access was available for an attorney or any other interested party.

Reuters calls for release of Iraqi cameraman

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Reuters called on the U.S. military on Wednesday to explain the detention of an Iraqi journalist working for the agency, who has been held incommunicado for two weeks, or release him immediately. U.S. military spokesmen have refused to say why they are holding Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani, a 36-year-old freelance cameraman and photographer who has worked for the international news organisation for a year in Ramadi, capital of Anbar region.

Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for U.S. detainee operations in Iraq, said the journalist was now in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison: "He will not be able to have visitors for the next 60 days," he added.

Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said: "We are very concerned and dismayed by this unexplained and prolonged detention of a journalist working for us and urge the U.S. military either to release him or provide a full account of the accusations against him. "Ali al-Mashhadani is a professional journalist whose work for us brings him into contact with parties in conflict. "In the interests of the independent media the United States has pledged to foster in Iraq, it is imperative the authorities act speedily to clarify with news organisations any suspicions arising from the activities of journalists working for us."

Schlesinger also demanded access to Mashhadani.

An account from Mashhadani's family of his arrest on August 8 suggests that images found by U.S. Marines on his cameras during a general sweep in the neighbourhood prompted his detention. Relatives said that Marines conducting a routine search of the house turned hostile after viewing images stored on Mashhadani's video and stills cameras and his desktop computer. Reuters has provided the U.S. military with published work by Mashhadani that shows scenes of conflict and gunmen operating in plain view of civilians. Nothing in his work has indicated activity incompatible with his status as an independent journalist.

U.S. military officials have responded neither to offers of further information from Reuters nor to proposals for meetings with Reuters editors to clarify Mashhadani's activities.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS

Journalists for Reuters and other media organisations in Iraq have been wrongly accused in the past by U.S. forces of having prior information of insurgent attacks -- suspicions apparently raised by their quick response to news events.

Last year, three Iraqis working for Reuters were arrested after arriving swiftly in the area where a U.S. helicopter had been shot down near Falluja. The three, and another Iraqi working for U.S. television network NBC, said they were sexually and physically abused by U.S. soldiers for three days before they were released after pressure from the news organisations. Reuters is still seeking access to the results of a military inquiry into that incident. A summary report exonerated the troops involved but the Iraqis themselves were never questioned by U.S. investigators.

A number of Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organisations have been detained for months at a time by the U.S. military and some are still in custody.

Iraq is the most dangerous country to work as a journalist. Two Reuters cameramen, Ukrainian Taras Protsyuk and Palestinian Mazen Dana, have been killed by U.S. troops since the war began.

Mashhadani's predecessor for Reuters in Ramadi, Dhia Najim, was shot dead during fighting between U.S. Marines and insurgents on November 1 last year. The exact circumstances of his killing have never been clarified despite requests from Reuters.

Newspaper editor in scotland charged under anti-racism laws following editorial
"In my opinion, what they were trying to do was make me say something racist to get a lot more against me. But if you read the article, there is absolutely nothing there that says black refugees or Asian refugees."

ByFRANK URQUHART

THE editor of a Scottish weekly newspaper is facing possible prosecution under Britain's anti-racism laws, following the publication of an article claiming that a massive refugee camp could be built in Scotland.

Alan Buchan, the publisher and editor of the North East Weekly, a free sheet based in Peterhead, was arrested by officers from Grampian Police in connection with the publication of an editorial in the latest issue of the newspaper, headlined "Perverts and Refugees".

Mr Buchan was charged under a section of the Public Order Act which gives the police powers to arrest any person whom they suspect of publishing or distributing written material that is threatening, abusive, or insulting and intended to stir up racial hatred.

His newspaper had previously claimed that the redundant military base at RAF Buchan, near the village of Boddam, could become the site of Scotland's first refugee camp.

The article in the latest edition states: "Three months ago Buchan's only locally owned newspaper exclusively broke the story that the Scottish Prison Service intended to close Craiginches in Aberdeen, sell the land for housing and turn Boddam and Peterhead into a huge prison and immigrant centre.

"The people of rural England have been in massive rebelling [sic] over the establishment of refugee centres holding upwards of 5,000 immigrants because they were fully aware that their communities would be swamped and turned into cesspools.

"The reason that the people of rural England have rejected this is that they know their communities would be turned into ghettos where murder, rape, robbery, assault, break-ins and numerous other crimes become prevalent."

Mr Buchan, a former fisherman who stood for the Scottish People's Alliance in the last general election, has now been arrested and charged in connection with the allegedly inflammatory content of the article. He told The Scotsman yesterday: "What precisely I am charged with I don't know, but they were questioning me about the article in the paper. The police phoned me up on Saturday and asked me to come to the police station for a chat and that is when they arrested me. I was questioned for about two hours."

Mr Buchan claimed: "In my opinion, what they were trying to do was make me say something racist to get a lot more against me. But if you read the article, there is absolutely nothing there that says black refugees or Asian refugees. This is just a whole problem that affects the whole world, not just here.

"At the moment we have got no way of discriminating what type of refugees are allowed into the country."

Mr Buchan declared: "The North East Weekly see the police action as a move against press freedom and free speech. We intend to mount a stout defence of the freedom of speech, as this is the only way to defeat the extremists who are bringing blood and carnage to the streets of our towns and cities."

A spokesman for Grampian Police said: "Grampian Police can confirm that, following a complaint, they are making inquiries regarding the content of an article published and distributed recently in the North East Weekly publication.

"A male has been charged in connection with the inquiry and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal."

Mr Buchan, 46, has been cited to appear at Peterhead Sheriff Court on 1 September.