Iraqi Journalists call upon the UN to re-open
Media Development Center
UNIS Director Marie Heuze recieves request from Abdel Razzak
AlSultane, head of the Najaf Journalists Union and on behalf of the Iraqi
Journlaists UNION (IJU) re-opneing of the Media Development Centre (MDC) in
Baghdad, Iraq.
22 September 2008
Head of Arab Bureau at the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Adam
Abdelmoula meets with Sultane, who requested the support of the OHCHR for the
re-opening of the MDC.
Najaf Iraqi writer Kalthoum Amer
ELHesinawi calls for support for women journalists and writers and
respecting their human rights.
Source: ICPJ
23 September 2008
PEC-ICPJ:
Appalled at the attack against
the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists and Moaid AL-Lamy
Photo: PEC consultation September 2004, Moaid was a founding member
of the PEC in June 2004, and founded the ICPJ on 10 September 2007 with a group of journalists from
across the Globe.
GENEVA, September 22 (PEC-ICPJ) – The Press Emblem
Campaign (PEC) and the International Covenant for the Protection of Journalists
(ICPJ) condemned strongly the targeting of the President of the Iraqi Syndicate
of Journalists (ISJ) Moaid AL-Lamy and the attack against the ISJ headquarters
Saturday.
The PEC and the ICPJ were appalled and shocked at the
heinous attack and wished well Mr. AL-Lamy who is currently in hospital.
In a phoner with PEC President Hedayat Abdel Nabi AL-Lamy called upon the international community to put
an end to those attacks and to work on placing mechanisms for the protection of
journalists and not rely on promises and words.
Facing death and escaping it by God’s will, AL-Lamy called
upon all concerned parties to put an end to the massacre of Iraqi journalists
and expressed hope that the international community acts in a manner that shows
its credibility and translates its promises into action and moves ahead to
protect the Iraqi journalists.
He stressed that the profession of journalism is an
impartial profession based on narrating and uncovering the truth and therefore
journalists deserve added protection faced in most conflicts with dangerous
situations.
Mr. AL-Lamy is a founder of the PEC, he joined the movement
on behalf of his Syndicate in June 2004. Mr. AL-Lamy founded, with a team of
journalists from across the globe, in Geneva on 10 September 2007, the ICPJ. He is the ICPJ Vice President for Asia.
The PEC and the ICPJ join hands in stressing that targeting
the President of the ISJ for the second time in several months, the first
attacked was the former President Shihab Al Tamimi who was killed when his car
was attacked in Baghdad last February, a few days after he was hospitalized
from his serious wounds, opens and re-opens the file of the protection of
journalists and warrants the serious attention of the international community.
The media activist organizations call upon the Iraqi
government and Iraqi parliament to pass the Iraqi Law for the Protection and
Journalists presented by the ISJ.
The two NGOs based in Geneva have requested time and again that action is needed
and that the time is pressing and dangers engulf journalists.
They are urging member states to act, within the Human
Rights Council (HRC), or outside it, to start discussions on a legal instrument
that would protect the media work in conflict zones and in dangerous
situations.
Whether member states start with a binding declaration or
guidelines en route to start deliberations on a new convention, the important
issue is to start this process and not sit idle watching media workers targeted
day and night all over the globe.
Watching media workers fall one after the other by member
states might give the wrong impression to the media community that others
“don’t care”. French journalist, Cécile Hennion, working for Le Monde, was stabbed in her hotel in Erbil in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
For the first time since such assaults on journalists have taken place the attacker of Cécile Hennion has been arrested the culprit and the case has been sent to court.
The ICPJ, headquartered in Geneva since September 2007, is campaigning with the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) for a new convention to protect journalists in zones of conflict and elsewhere.
More than 250 journalists were killed in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003.
The President of the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists Shihab El Tamimi died after he was shot multiple times after leaving a planning meeting for a journalist safety seminar.
11 March 2008
Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists choose new Chairman, declares one week of mourning for Tamimi’s brutal killing
In an extraordinary meeting, the board of the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists (ISJ) voted for Gabar Tarad as Chairman of the Syndicate, Moaid El Lamy as Vice Chairman and Secretary-General, and declared a week of mourning from today for the brutal killing of its former Chairman Shehab El Tamimi.
The board declared 27 February, the day marking the death of Shehab El Tamimi, the ISJ former chairman, a commemorative day for all journalists fallen in Iraq in the line of duty.
Called upon all publications in Iraq to stop press on Monday 3 March and asked all TV stations to show the mourning ribbon in their casts.
The ISJ called upon the government to adopt the syndicate law for the protection of journalists in Iraq.
Source: Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists 29 February 2008
Press Release-High Priority
Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists says four Iraqi journalists killed, warns to expose associations who trade off the cause to receive contributions, and accuses US forces and the UN for inability to protect Iraqi journalists
ICPJ says arguments against an International Convention to Protect Journalists are wrong, null and void
The Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists (ISJ) said Monday evening that four journalists have been brutally killed in Iraq.
The ISJ cried out telling the world that despite the continuous call to spare Iraqi journalists from their lives being taken away from them, the daily drama continues of gunning down the creative work of those journalists slain.
In a statement issued in Baghdad and released from the headquarters of the International Covenant for the Protection of Journalists (ICPJ) in Geneva, the ISJ said that the world conscience is still silent on the International, Regional and Arab levels vis a vis the horrific tragedy of Iraqi journalists.
The list of the four slain Iraqi journalists:
1-Saleh Mohammed of the Washington Post, who was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in the Sayedia district.
2-Jassim Mohamed Nofal
3-Khaled Mohamed Nofal
4-Ziad Tareq
The three worked for the Iraq Al Watan newspaper and were gunned down in Northern Iraq by a military group in a public street leading to the city of Kirkuk.
The Syndicate noted with grief that since March 2003 more than 248 Iraqi journalists were killed.
The ISJ, while expressing its stunning shock vis a vis this daily massacre, calls upon all concerned parties to engage in serious work and held the US forces full responsibility for not implementing the Geneva conventions which holds them responsible for safeguarding the lives of civilians among them the journalists.
The ISJ also announced that it holds the United Nations with the moral responsibility for not taking any measures so far to protect journalists and not acting on a new international convention that would protect all journalists including the Iraqis and the families whose main bread earner has perished.
In addition, the ISJ calls upon the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Brussels, the Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) Cairo, the ICPJ and the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) in Geneva to take the necessary steps to exercise their moral pressure on international organizations to find a new mechanism to put an end to this daily massacre, unforeseen in the history of journalism.
The ISJ accused other press organizations and other international organizations for receiving contributions in the name of the Iraqi journalists without delivering those contributions to those entitled and pinpointed at organizations in New York and Paris.
However, the ISJ noted that it has received a modest sum from the IFJ to lend assistance to the families of fallen journalists.
In its outrage, the ISJ noted that it will expose all those who have used the Iraqi journalists as a trade off for collecting contributions.
In conclusion the ISJ expressed its condolences to the families of the gunned journalists, and all the families of fallen Iraqi journalists who took a position of integrity in their quest to reach the truth and to expose it, while upholding the principle of freedom of opinion and expression, a core human rights principle guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other Human Rights instruments.
