IFJ urges Obama to probe US killing of Reuters news staff

It follows the release on Monday of graphic video footage showing a US helicopter attack on civilians, including two Reuters news staffers, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh.

"This is evidence of calculated, cold-blooded and horrifying violence," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ president. "The United States cannot ignore this atrocity and the killings of unarmed civilians. We insist on a completely new review of these and all the killings of journalists and media staff in the Iraq conflict."

The July 2007 attack was filmed from an Apache helicopter flying over Baghdad. The video was released by WikiLeaks, a US website, which decrypted a version obtained from military whistleblowers.

The IFJ said it reignites the controversy over American  military attacks on journalists during the conflict, which were highlighted on 8 April 2003 when US forces fired on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel killing Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters, and José Couso of the Telecinco network in Spain. Earlier that day US forces attacked the offices of Al-Jazeera in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub.

“Altogether there have been 19 unexplained killings of media staff at the hands of US soldiers,” said Boumelha. “The administration of Barack Obama cannot duck its responsibility to set aside the white-wash of self-exonerating reporting by the US army. Justice requires that there is no impunity and that the US military is held to account for its actions in Iraq.”

The Brussels-based IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 125 countries. ■