In memory of Martyr Arab Journalists and Writers

Amman-May, 2007

In a report prepared by the Arab Archives Institute (AAI) in Jordan, there is an estimated 72 Arab journalists killed between 2001- Jan.2007 for reasons directly related to their work, 12 of them are female journalists. This means that there is at least one journalist every month killed in an Arab country in the last six years, the most dangerous of which is evidently Iraq.

The high number of Arab journalists killed in six years overshadowed their accomplishments and their legacies according to AAI report that is carried out in cooperation with IFEX network and UNESCO. The main motive for the killing of these journalists was intimidation.

In memory of male and female journalists and writers, AAI would like to pay tribute to journalists who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedoms through saying a word and giving a picture. It is a reminder to activists around the world of the highly dangerous circumstances Arab journalists are working in, not only in Iraq, but also in other places where the word seems too much to be tolerated by enemies of freedoms.

In honor of the word, the Arab Archives Institute would like to remember the names of journalists and the heroic sacrifices they gave and are still giving for the development of free media around the Arab world. Among the photos available, AAI chose the available pictures of heroic journalists from selected Arab countries in the hope that all photos and achievements will be completed in upcoming reports. And while Iraq is the number one country in the world where journalists are the most prone to attack, journalists from other Arab countries are also harassed, tortured and killed for their beliefs and for expressing them.

Algeria

Abdel Hai Bilyardoh, tortured and killed for his writings in 2002. Murad Belqasem (43) was stabbed to death in his apartment. He was a newscaster for Algerian station. He was killed in 2002. Hamid l’reibi another journalist who also was killed in 2002. Fadila Nejma, Echourouk and Adel Zerrouk, Al-Rai: The two Algerian journalists were killed while covering mass anti-government protests organized by Berber community leaders in the capital, Algiers on June 14, 2001.

Jordan

Tareq Ayyoub Riham Farra

Riham Farra (29) killed in Iraq in 2003- known for her audacious writings in Jordanian newspapers. Tareq Ayyoub (35) worked with Al Jazeera satellite channel. He was killed in Iraq in 2003.

Sudan

Mohammad Taha

Mohammad Taha (50) tortured and killed for his courageous writings that were considered offensive to the system and the community. He was killed in 2006.

Kuwait

Hidaya Salem

Hidaya Salem (65) killed by a gunshot while parking her car. She was a courageous writer and editor who broke taboos. She was killed in 2001. 

Palestine

Nazeeh Darwazeh Mazen Da’na

Mazen Da’na (38) was killed in Baghdad while taking pictures of Abu Ghreib prison. He was killed in 2003. Nazeeh Darwazeh (44) was killed in 2003 in Nablus, Palestine, while taking pictures by the Israeli occupation soldiers. Khalil Ziben (59) was known for his controversial writings over the Palestinian internal situation. He was killed in 2004 while heading towards his car early morning. Zakaria Ahmad (45) was killed in 2006 by a rocket from an Israeli inspection plane. He worked as an anchor for the Saudi television. Imad Abu Zahra (28) was in an out of prison for his controversial writings in Palestinian security jails. He was killed by Israeli forces who were firing sporadically at a crowd in the city of Jenine in July 2002. Amjad Allami (20) was killed in 2002 by Israeli forces. He worked as a photographer and director of Nawras Television in Khalil city in Palestine. Jamil Nawawreh was killed in 2002 amid Israeli shootings on Ramallah and Bireh. He worked for the Palestinian TV and Radio. Othman Qatnani (24) was killed while he doing an investigative report with Hamas leaders in Nablus in 2001. Issam Tillawi (30) was killed by an Israeli forces gunshot in 2002 while demonstrating peacefully in support of President Yasser Arafat. He worked as a broadcaster for the Voice of Palestine station. Mohammad Bishawi (27) was killed by Israeli forces who gunned down the Palestinian center for studies in 2001. He worked also for Islam online and Quds Press agency.

Lebanon

Jubran Tweini Layal Najeeb Samir Kassir

Jubran Tweini (48) is a prominent writer and public personality in Lebanon with vocal anti-Syrian stands and pro democracy attitude. He was killed in a deliberate explosion in 2005 that destroyed his car. Samir Kassir (45) is a creative and prominent writer with anti-Syrian sentiments. He was famous for his column in An-Nahar daily. He was assassinated by an implanted bomb in his car parked in front of his home in Beirut in 2005. Layal Najeeb (23) worked as a freelance photographer. she was killed by an ISareli raid on southern of Lebanon during the Israeli Attack on the country in July 2006. 

Lybia

Deif Al Ghazal

Deif Al Ghazal (29) is a courageous and prominent writer who called for fighting corruption in Lybia. He was brutally tortured with his fingers cut off and stabbed in different parts of his body before he was shot dead in May 2005.

Iraq

Ra’eda Wazzan Atwar Bahjat  Naqshin Rashid Mohammad Al Ban  Yasin Al Dulaimi

Atwar Bahjat (30) is a distinguished journalist and reporter for the Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya. She advocated a Sunni-Shiite rapprochement in her reports. She was kidnapped and reportedly brutally tortured before she was killed in February 2006. Aqeel Muhammad Al Ban (58) is a reporter and cameraman for the Al-Sharqiya TV. He was brutally killed in November 2006 as he was leaving his home in Mosul. Nabil Ibrahim Al Dulaimi (36) is a news editor for Radio Dijla. He was killed in 2006 by unidentified gunmen. Luma Al Karkhi (25) is a reporter for the Baghdad-based daily Al-Dustour. She was gunned down in 2006 while on her way to work. Naqshin Hamma Rashid, 30, was killed along with her driver Anis Qassem. Rashid is a presenter at Iraqi television station Atyaf. Abdel Majid Isma’il Khalil, (67) is a freelance journalist for several local papers. He was abducted and killed by unidentified gunmen. Saed Mahdi Shlash was murdered in his home in Baghdad along with his wife. He is a reporter for Rayat al-Arab, a newspaper associated with the Movement of Arab Nationalists. Raed Qays (28) is a journalist for the Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) news agency. Unidentified gunmen in a car blocked the journalist while he was driving and shot him to death in Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Al-Dura. Raeda Wazzan (40) is a news anchor with the Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya. She was kidnapped and found dead five days later on a roadside in Mosul in 2005. She received several death threats prior to her murder. Hussam Sarsam (36) is a cameraman working with Kurdistan TV, a station affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He was kidnapped and shot possibly for filming detainee confessions in 2005. Ahmed Jabbar Hashim (35) is a reporter for the daily Al-Sabah. He was kidnapped and his decapitated body was discovered on April 1 2005.

Fadhil Hazem Fadhil and Ali Ibrahim Issa: The two Al-Hurriya television journalists were killed in twin suicide bombings while on their way to an assignment in April 2005. Saman Abdullah Izzedine is a news anchor for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan–backed Kirkuk TV. He was gunned down as he was driving on the main highway from Kirkuk to Baghdad in 2005. Ahmed al-Rubai'i is a reporter and editor at Al-Sabah who also worked in the media department of the Iraqi National Assembly. He was abducted and murdered by unknown perpetrators in Baghdad in 2005 but no body was found.

Saleh Ibrahim (30) was killed by gunfire near the city's al-Yarmouk Circle in 2005. He worked as a cameraman for Associated Press. Ahmed Adam and Najem Abed Khudair are reporters with the private Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada. They were murdered on a road in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad after leaving the office of their newspaper in Baghdad in May 2005 along with Ali Jassem Al Rumy, a journalist for Al Safeer. Jerges Mahmood Mohamad Suleiman is a news anchor at Nineveh TV, was shot by unidentified assailants in late May 2005. Maha Ibrahim is a news producer for the Iraqi television station Baghdad TV. She was shot by U.S. forces as she drove to work with her husband in June 2005. Yasser Salihee (30) is Iraqi special correspondent for Knight Ridder. He was shot to death in Baghdad in June 2005. The shot appears to have been fired by a U.S. military sniper.

Ahmed Wael Bakri (30) is a director and news producer for the local television station, Al-Sharqiyah TV. He was killed by gunfire as he approached U.S. troops late June 2005. Khaled Al Attar is an Iraqi television producer for the state news channel Al-Iraqiya. He was killed in Mosul after being kidnapped earlier in the day on July 1, 2005.Al Attar helped produce a number of programs, including a satirical look at Iraqi government. Adnan al-Bayati is a freelance producer and translator who worked for the television station TG3. He was murdered by three gunmen at his home in al-Adhamiya neighborhood. On July 23, 2005, the men knocked on al-Bayati's door and opened fire when he answered, killing him in front of his wife and baby daughter. Rafed Said Al Anbagy (36) is a news anchor and director at Diyala. He was shot dead in Za'toun neighborhood in the city of Baaquba, east of Baghdad, while covering a football match on August 27, 2005. Hind Ismail (28) is an active reporter for the daily As-Saffir. She was kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul and killed by one bullet to the head on September 17, 2005. Fakher Haider (38) reported for The Times for more than two years, and worked for Merbad TV in Basra, the Guardian of London, National Geographic, and other publications. He was kidnapped and killed in Al-Kiblah neighborhood with a gunshot to the head on September 19, 2005 . Firas Maadidi (40) is Mosul bureau chief for As-Safeer and chief editor of the local daily Al-Masar. He was killed by unidentified gunmen in the al-Noor neighborhood on September 20, 2005. Mohammed Haroon  (47) is a controversial journalist and publisher of the weekly newspaper Al-Kadiya who also served as secretary-general of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate. He was shot four times by unidentified gunmen on October 19, 2005. Ahmed Hussein Al-Maliki is an editor for Talafar al-Yawm in charge of local affairs. He was gunned down by unidentified gunmen while exiting an Internet café in Mosul’s central district on November 7, 2005. On November 28,  2005, two journalists Aqeel Abdul Ridha and Muqdad Muhsin who work for the state-run Al-Iraqiya TV network were killed in Baghdad. Gunmen inside a car opened fire on them in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Adil.  On February 1, a massacre of six journalists in Arbil took place. The journalists were: Safir Nader, Qulan TV, Haymin Mohamed Salih, Qulan TV, Ayoub Mohamed, Kurdistan TV, Gharib Mohamed Salih, Kurdistan TV, Semko Karim Mohyideen, freelancer, and Abdel Sattar Abdel Karim, Al Ta’akhy. These six journalists were killed when the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were attacked in twin suicide bombings as the two Kurdish groups hosted guests to commemorate the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid.

Nadia Nasrat is a news anchor working for the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Iraq Media Network (IMN). She was killed in the town of Baqouba when unidentified armed assailants opened fire on a bus carrying several employees of the IMN’s Diyala Media Centre on March 18, 2004. The same day, cameraman for Al Arabiya, Ali Abdel Aziz and reporter al-Khatib were shot dead near a U.S. military checkpoint in Baghdad. Burhan Mohamed Mazhour is a freelance Iraqi cameraman working for the U.S.-based television network ABC. He was killed in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad on March 26, 2004. Asaad Kadhim is a correspondent for the U.S.-funded Al-Iraqiya TV. He and and his driver, Hussein Saleh, were killed by gunfire from U.S. forces near a checkpoint close to the Iraqi city of Samara on April 19. Mahmoud Hamid Abbas (32) is an Iraqi cameraman working for the German television station Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF). He was killed on assignment in Fallujah in August 2004. Mazen al-Tumeizi is a reporter for Al-Arabiya television. He was killed after a U.S. helicopter fired missiles and machine guns to destroy a disabled American vehicle in September 2004. Karam Hussein is an Iraqi photographer working for the German-based European Pressphoto Agency (EPA). He was killed by a group of gunmen in front of his home in the northern city of Mosul on October 14, 2004, for reasons believed to be connected to his work for a foreign news organization. Dina Mohammed Hassan is an Iraqi reporter for the local Arabic-language television station Al-Hurriya TV. She was killed the same day as Hussein in a drive-by shooting in front of her Baghdad residence in the city’s Adhamiya District. Dhia Najim is an Iraqi freelance cameraman for Reuters and others. He was shot and killed in the western city of Ramadi on November 1, 2004, where he had been covering a gun battle between the U.S. military and Iraqi insurgents.

Tareq Ayyoub (34) is a journalist for several Jordanian publications and reporter for Al Jazeera satellite channel. He was killed when a US missile struck the channel’s Baghdad office on April 8, 2003.  Ahmed Shawkat is an editor of the Iraqi weekly Bila Ittijah. He was shot and killed by a gunman in Mosul on October 28, 2003.

References:

Information in this summary and the original report was gathered from several resources including the Arab Archives Institute (AAI) database, Ifex communiqués and alerts; information from Iraqi friends, websites of international organizations for human rights and media freedoms (such as Committee to Protect Journalists- CPJ, Reporters Sans Frontiers-RSF) and the International News Safety Institute.