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Dying for change
The murder of Shahab Al-Tamimi highlights the difficulties faced by Iraqis trying to build a free press and civil society, say Dave Anderson and Gary Kent
Are we becoming inured to the murders of journalists and civil society leaders in Iraq? The outcry is minimal when another brave figure doing his patriotic duty at some considerable risk is deliberately targeted and murdered.
Journalists are regular targets for the insurgents and criminal gangs, and some have been killed by US forces. In 2007, 25 journalists and media assistants were kidnapped in Iraq; 208 reporters have died on duty since 2003.
The latest victim of what is almost certainly a strategy of terror and decapitation of the political leadership of the new labour movement is 75 year-old Shahab Al-Tamimi, the leader of the Iraqi Journalists’ Union since 2003.