Reporters threatened in Iraq for reporting the truth

In an incident similiar to the one I relayed on August 18, Iraqi police stormed a hotel in Najaf and arrested 60 reporters. Their crime? Telling the truth.

Around 60 journalists from local and foreign news organisations including the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Independent as well as the BBC, were held for almost an hour while police officers delivered what one correspondent described as an "unexpected press conference at gunpoint".

Correspondents in the Najaf Sea hotel said around a dozen policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists and forced them into vans and a truck.

The Independent's Donald Macintyre reported that the police, some masked, "shouted threats and abuse at the reporters, along with their Iraqi drivers and translators, and fired about a dozen shots inside and outside the hotel before taking them before the police chief, Major-General Ghaleb al-Jazaari, to hear his emotional complaints about media coverage and the sufferings of police officers during the present crisis".

Najaf police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari told the journalists they were being detained because the satellite television channel al-Arabiya had reported that Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani would arrive in Najaf today to lead a demonstration.

Separately, the al-Jazeera website was today reporting that Iraqi police had arrested five members of al-Arabiya after they reported that US planes had fired missiles within metres of the Imam Ali mausoleum.

And we wonder why Iraqis aren't grateful for the "freedom" we've brought them.
- posted by truthspeaker    Comments