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Brussels - The International News Safety Institute on Friday pleaded with journalists to resist calls to carry guns in Iraq following the horrific murders of three more news staff. The Iraq correspondent for Al Arabiya News Channel, Atwar Bahjat, cameraman Khaled Mahmoud Al Falahi and technician Adnan Khairallah were shot by unidentified gunmen near Samarra yesterday as they covered the attack on the holy sites in the city. The triple slaying was one of the worst single incidents of a war that has now claimed the lives of 104 journalists and support staff in 23 months, making it the bloodiest conflict for the news media in modern times. At a news conference after the killings, a reporter asked President Jalal Talabani to allow journalists to carry weapons to defend themselves. "Send me an official request and I will approve it and inform concerned agencies to give you the right to carry arms," he replied. INSI believes that the safety of journalists would not be improved, and in fact probably would be diminished, were they to carry weapons. "Journalists increasingly are being targeted in conflict largely because they have lost, in the eyes of certain elements, their status as neutral observers. If they bear arms they reinforce this misguided belief by placing themselves on one side or another," said INSI Director Rodney Pinder. "A journalist with a gun says some people in the situation I'm covering are my enemies and I am prepared to kill them if necessary. That is not the position of a neutral civilian." Most importantly, journalists who carry arms may remove themselves from the protection, flimsy though it is, afforded to civilians in war by the Geneva Conventions. Article 79 of the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions says: "Journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflicts shall be considered as civilians... They shall be protected as such under the Conventions and this Protocol, provided they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians..." INSI and other organisations concerned with the safety of journalists in conflict believe that the bearing of arms would amount to that action. "It is entirely understandable that journalists in Iraq, who have suffered so much, are contemplating extreme measures to protect themselves, and we sympathise with them in their plight." Pinder said. "But we must be very careful to avoid any action that might make a bad situation even worse both for individuals and the Iraq news community as a whole." And he added: "We mourn the brutal and cowardly murders of these brave Al Arabiya reporters who were only trying to do their job. Those who attack journalists in Iraq would do well to remember that were it not for Atwar, Khaled and Adnan and dozens of journalists like them, the world would not know of the outrages at the holy sites in Samarra or of the other sufferings of the Iraqi people. Journalists an their support staff must be protected and defended by the societies that need them." INSI expresses its deep condolences to Al Arabiya, Wasan Media and the families and friends of Atwar, Khaled and Adnan. Any questions about this news release contact Rodney Pinder rodney.pinder@newssafety.com or mobile +44 7734 709 267 |