24 Jun 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Afaq.tv cameraman, Salem Alwan Al-Gharabi, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Iraq on Tuesday. At least 27 people were killed in the double car bomb attack outside a government compound in Diwaniya, a city 275 km south of Baghdad. Al-Gharabi had gone to cover the regional council’s weekly meeting when he was killed in the blast.
16 May 11 | Uncategorized
Last week’s disclosures from the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war are pretty strong stuff, whichever way you cut it. They include both evidence from a senior defence intelligence official that the September 2002 dossier was “sexed-up” to make a case for war and a landmark publication of three policy papers from MI6 in late 2001, discussing the pros and cons of “regime change”. (more…)
25 Feb 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The offices of Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi media watchdog, were raided by around 30 armed men on Wednesday. The men took away computers, cameras, video cameras, bulletproof jackets and archives from the office. The director of JFO blamed the government for the attack: “The government is behind this attack. The JFO is fighting for media freedom to become a reality in Iraq and, as such, clearly poses a threat to the authorities”.
25 Feb 11 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The first independent TV station in Northern Iraq, Naliya Radio and Television (NRT), was forced off air after up to 50 masked gunmen stormed its headquarters, destroying all broadcasting equipment and setting the building on fire. The TV station, which had only started broadcasting on 17 February, had already received numerous threatening messages over its coverage of protests in the city of Sulaymaniyah in which three demonstrators were killed and another 100 wounded. NRT TV had broadcast footage of police firing on the demonstrators.
