Europa NewsWire.
Photo by Staff Sgt. Brien Vorhees.
New York, Nov 2 2009 - The United Nations agency charged with defending the freedom of the press today deplored the killing of an Iraqi television cameraman who died when a bomb exploded outside his house in the northern city of Kirkuk.
Orhan
Hijran, an 18-year-old who worked for the Al-Rasheed satellite TV
channel, was killed following the explosion on 21 October, the UN
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reported.
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura issued a statement
from the agency’s headquarters in Paris in which he noted that “a
shocking number of Iraqi journalists and media workers have paid with
their lives” for carrying out their work in recent years.
“It is essential for the reconstruction of a free and democratic Iraq that the authorities improve the safety of journalists and enable them to carry out their work for the benefit of all.”
Iraq remains one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ), a non-governmental organization, estimates that more than 200
journalists or media support workers have been killed across the
country since the United States-led invasion in March 2003.
Source: UN News.
