US silences journalists by detention

America is coming under international pressure over attempts to censor media reports in occupied Iraq by arresting and detaining journalists.

US uses repressive measures to silence media in Iraq

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the detentions of an Aljazeera correspondent and four Turkish journalists by occupation US troops in Iraq.

 

The investigation is part of a larger exercise by the independent committee to examine the arrests of journalists in Iraq by the United States troops in violation of international norms.

 

On Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said two journalists with Iranian State Television had been detained by US forces in Iraq since 1 July and  voiced concern in a letter to US officials.

 

Television team

   

The CPJ faxed a letter to Paul Bremer, the US official in charge of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, about the detention of Said Abu Taleb and Soheil Kareemi. It said the two were working on a documentary for Iran’s Channel 2 television in southern Iraq.

 

The CPJ demanded that US officials make public the basis for accusations against Taleb and Kareemi and provide information about the detentions of other reporters in Iraq.

   

Copying the letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and United Nations Special Representative for Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, the CPJ asked for details on why the journalists were being held for committing “security violations.”

   

The independent committee said it was also investigating reports that US troops in Baghdad had beaten and briefly detained cameraman Kazutaka Sato of Japan Press for filming bodies of people killed in a US raid.

Source: News Agencies