Gen. Tommy Franks asked to order enquiry into death of British TV reporter and disappearance of two colleagues

MONTREAL, March 26 /CNW Telbec/ - Reporters Without Borders today wrote
to Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of the coalition forces operating in Iraq,
to ask him to order an immediate enquiry into the exact circumstances of the
death of British TV reporter Terry Lloyd of Independent Television News (ITN)
and disappearance of his French cameraman Frédéric Nerac and Lebanese
interpreter Hussein Othman on 22 March near Basra in southern Iraq. Various
sources have said they came under fire from coalition forces.
The British defence ministry said it has opened an enquiry into the death
of Lloyd, who was 51. A ministry spokesman said on 25 March that he had no new
details and did not want to comment on reports that Lloyd and his colleagues
were hit by friendly fire. Reporters Without Borders urged the British
authorities to include the disappearances of Nerac and Othman in their
enquiry.
The ITN crew, which was not "embedded" in any coalition unit and which
was travelling in two jeeps marked "TV" came under fire at Iman Anas as it was
approaching Basra. According to ITN cameraman Daniel Demoustier, who was
wounded in the incident, the jeeps came under heavy fire from coalition
forces. He said this occurred after they had found themselves facing Iraqi
soldiers and had turned back. At this point, coalition tanks opened fire on
the two vehicles, which took direct hits, he said. "They had probably been
aiming at the Iraqis although I am sure the Iraqis were trying to surrender,"
Demoustier said. "They were killed within several minutes," he added.
The toll on the news media after seven days of fighting in Iraq is two
journalists killed, two reported missing for five days, at least two others
wounded, and two arrested by the Iraqis.
Two Iranian journalists working for the satellite channel Dubai
Television, reporter Ali Montazeri and cameraman Abdolreza Abbasi, were
arrested by Iraqis in civilian dress on 24 March shortly after entering Iraq
across the Iranian border at Arvand Kenar with the aim of going to the Al-Faw
peninsula. According to Montazeri's son, who witnessed their detention from
the other side of the border, they were detained by Iraqi security agents.
Other sources said the Iraqis handed them over to the British forces.
Montazeri also worked for the Lebanese TV channel LBC.
Australian cameraman Paul Moran, 39, who worked for the Australian TV
channel ABC, was killed by a car-bomb in Iraqi Kurdistan on 22 March. ABC
reporter Eric Campbell was injured in the same explosion. Australian foreign
minister Alexander Downer said it was a suicide attack by an Islamic terrorist
organisation linked to al-Qaeda that was carried out in reprisal for the US
bombing of Iraq. Downer identified the group as Ansar al-Islam, which had been
active for some time in northern Iraq. Officials of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) also blamed Ansar al-Islam.
These two confirmed deaths must be added to the long list of journalists
who have been killed in the course of their work. A total of 538 journalists
were killed from 1992 to 2002, almost half of them in war zones. In 73 per
cent of these cases, the victims were identified as journalists and were
killed in attacks or by gunfire. Only 27 per cent of the deaths were
accidental.
Four journalists were killed in the 1991 Gulf war. German photographer
Gad Gross was shot dead by the Iraqi army in Iraqi Kurdistan. Three British
freelance journalists who were covering the war for the BBC were probably
killed by their Turkish guide.

The Reporters Without Borders website, www.rsf.org, has a special page on
the war in Iraq with the organisation's comments and press releases, a daily
column by news media analyst Jean-Marie Charon and frequently updated briefs
on the conditions of work of journalists covering the war.