U.S. Troops More Hostile With Reporters

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32432-2003Nov12.html

U.S. Troops More Hostile With Reporters


By SLOBODAN LEKIC
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 12, 2003; 5:06 PM


BAGHDAD, Iraq - With casualties mounting in Iraq, jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict.

Media people have been detained, news equipment has been confiscated and some journalists have suffered verbal and physical abuse while trying to report on events.

Although the number of incidents involving soldiers and journalists is difficult to gauge, anecdotal evidence suggests it has risen sharply the past two months.

The president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, an association of editors at AP's more than 1,700 newspapers in the United States and Canada, sent a protest leader to the Pentagon on Wednesday urging officials to "immediately take the steps to end such confrontations."

"The effect has been to deprive the American public of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast stations and online news operations," wrote Stuart Wilk, managing editor of The Dallas Morning News.
<snip>

A number of journalists, particularly Iraqis and other Arabs working for foreign media organizations, say they are now routinely threatened at gunpoint if they try to film the aftermath of guerrilla attacks. Some have been arrested and held for short periods.
<snip>

"They checked our identity badges and then let us go, saying they thought we were with Al-Jazeera," he said. "Each group of soldiers acts on its own, and most of them are very scared and inexperienced."

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more and more bushco communism-style repressive censorship. all the news that's fit to print by pravda.

[VolcanoJen]

1. Dupe... locking.

Please continue discussion in the original LBN thread on this topic, which can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=215688

Thanks!
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator