Posted on 03/30/2003 9:06:43 AM PST by HAL9000
LONDON (AFP) - A television journalist covering the Iraq war for Britain's Channel 4 News was found dead Sunday at a hotel in northern Iraq, his employers said, adding that there appeared to be no direct connection with military action.It is believed that Gaby Rado, 48, fell from the roof of the Abu Sanaa hotel in Sulyamaniya, a major town in a Kurdish controlled area, said a statement from the independent ITN network, which produces news programmes for Channel 4.
The journalist had been reporting on the activities of Kurdish fighters and coalition troops in the region, which is some 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of front line fighting.
Rado's body was found in the car park below the hotel on Sunday morning, according to the ITN statement.
It added: "Gaby was found with serious head injuries. He received immediate first aid at the scene and was then taken to the local hospital where he was pronounced dead."
Local police "have found an eyewitness who saw Gaby walking up to the hotel roof alone but did not see what happened next," the statement said.
Rado was a specialist in foreign affairs who covered the conflict in Afghanistan in late 2001, the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and the 1990s wars in Bosnia and Kosovo.
ITN has already lost one journalist in the Iraq war, veteran television news correspondent Terry Lloyd.
The network said Lloyd is suspected to have been killed by fire from allied forces near the southern city of Basra.
Lloyd's French cameraman Fred Nerac and Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman are still missing.
Stewart Purvis, ITN's editor-in-chief, said: "We will make every effort to bring (Rado's) body home whilst we also continue to try to recover from Basra the body" of Lloyd and to search for Nerac and Osman.
Born in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, Rado emigrated with his family to England when he was eight years old.
He was married and had two children by his first wife.
Jim Gray, editor of Channel 4 News, said: "All of us are utterly distraught and our thoughts are with Gaby's family.
"Gaby was truly a unique figure in television journalism... he was among the most experienced in his field."
Maybe he was a liberal. Maybe not. (My point is that the Iraqis are more likely to murder a conservative journalist. That's all I was driving at.)
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