Charter 2000-Aliran Media Statement
Lethal Censorship
Charter 2000-Aliran condemns the killing of three international journalists, including the correspondent from the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, in Baghdad on 8 April.
US forces knew that journalists were based at the offices of Al-Jazeera and the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. There was no justification for targeting this place and therefore it is legitimate to conclude that these sites were attacked deliberately and without warning by US forces.
The bombing of the TV station offices could not have been a mistake. Al-Jazeera had told US forces where its offices in Iraq are and had strung large banners outside them marked "TV."
This horrific attack on journalists amounts to a war crime. If the accounts by other independent journalists about this tragic incident are true, then this attack suggests that the world's sole superpower has no qualms about exercising lethal censorship of critical journalists or media organisations.
It would take more than mere assurances from the US Central Command in Doha, Qatar – where so-called daily briefings are offered to "embedded" journalists – that it is not the mission of the invading forces to kill journalists.
This deadly attack has wide repercussions for freedom of expression and of the press all over the world and thus, a thorough and independent investigation into these shocking deaths is necessary.
We call on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission* based in Bern, Switzerland to investigate this outrageous incident immediately.
Dr Mustafa K Anuar and Anil Netto
*The Commission was set up in 1991 under the First Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions to investigate any alleged serious violation of international humanitarian law.
Charter 2000, an initiative to promote press freedom in Malaysia, is based on a media manifesto that has been endorsed by 34 Malaysian civil society and media groups
This statement was sent to the local media including The Star, New Straits Times, and The Sun.
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