NYT: Detention of Iraqi Employees of Western News Media Angers Media

[DeepModem Mom]

Detention of Iraqi Employees Angers Western News Media
By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: September 15, 2005


BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 14 - On April 5, Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, an Iraqi cameraman for CBS News, was struck in the thigh by an American sniper's bullet while filming the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Mosul. As he recovered in a military hospital, the Americans arrested him. They later said the film in his camera suggested he was working for insurgents.

More than five months later, Mr. Hussein is still in an American military prison. The Iraqi criminal authorities have reviewed his case and declined to prosecute him. Colleagues who were with him that day have produced affidavits supporting his innocence. The American military has not released any evidence against him, despite repeated requests for information by CBS producers, lawyers and even the network's president, Andrew Heyward.

Mr. Hussein's case exemplifies a quandary faced by Western news organizations here. Their own reporters are mostly confined to fortified compounds and military bases. As a result, they are forced to rely on Iraqis, who work in increasingly dangerous settings, where the line between observer and participant is not always clear.

Western bureau chiefs concede that they cannot be certain the people they hire do not have links with insurgents, though they do their best to weed out such people.

One thing is clear: dozens of Iraqis who carry out assignments for the news organizations have been detained while on the job, and sometimes released weeks or months later with no explanation. American forces have mistakenly killed a dozen others, including a soundman working for Reuters who was shot dead by a sniper on Aug. 28....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/international/middleeast/15cbs.html

[stellanoir]

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are we?