Reuters
Claims US Military to Blame for Killing of Reporters
Not
Reported in US Media
Dear
friends,
Reuters,
Associate Press (AP), and UPI (United Press International) are the three main
English language newswire services used by almost all major media outlets.
You will often see them credited in newspapers under the headlines of
national and international stories. The global managing editor of Reuters
just recently stated that "the US military is entirely to blame for
the deaths of three of its employees in Iraq." Though the major
Australian newspapers have all reported this huge news, not
surprisingly the US press hasn't touched it. The below article is from
Australia's ABC network (see link below). Please help to build a better world
by spreading this important information.
with
very best wishes,
Fred
Burks for the WantToKnow.info team
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1247425.htm
US
military blamed for media deaths in Iraq
The global managing editor of news provider Reuters says
the US military is entirely to blame for the deaths of three of its employees
in Iraq since the start of the war there in March 2003.
"All of them were killed by the American army,"
Reuters chief David Schlesinger told reporters on the sidelines of a
conference in the southern Portuguese resort of Vilamoura, national news
agency Lusa reported.
"There is no understanding on the part of the US
military regarding the exercise of journalism," the agency quoted him as
saying.
"We can't run the risk that journalists will become
targets [in Iraq]. We must learn the lessons from these tragic cases."
Two Reuters photographers and a cameraman are among the
more than 60 war-related deaths of media workers recorded in Iraq.
The most recent death occurred in the Iraqi city of Ramadi
on November 1.
The US military says a cameraman killed there while on
assignment for Reuters died in a gun battle between marines and insurgents.
But the Iraqi man's colleagues and family have said they
believe he was shot by a US sniper.
Another Reuters cameraman, a Ukrainian citizen, was killed
in April 2003 when a US Army tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
A cameraman from Spain's Telecinco television network was
also killed in the strike, which injured three other reporters.
In October 2003, a Palestinian cameraman for Reuters was
killed near Abu Ghraib prison during a shootout.
The US military has denied direct responsibility for those
deaths as well.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told the conference via
satellite from Washington that those types of incidents were inevitable in a
war.
"Media coverage in places of conflict is always
dangerous," Lusa quoted him as saying.
He put the blame for the two deaths at the Palestine Hotel
on Iraqi troops resisting the US invasion.
He accused the Iraqi troops of using civilian structures
for military purposes, leading to confusion about what is a legitimate
target.
Journalists at the Palestine Hotel, including many working
for US-based organisations, had informed US military authorities that they
were using the hotel as a base.
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