Reuters Cameraman Shot Dead in Iraq

Reuters ^ | 08-17-03

[Brian S]

Aug. 17

— BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead on Sunday while working near a U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, witnesses said.

A spokesman for Iraq's U.S.-led administration confirmed a journalist had been killed and said an investigation was under way.

Witnesses said Dana, a Palestinian who has worked for Reuters for a decade, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in western Baghdad when he was shot.

Journalists had gone to the prison after the U.S. military said a mortar bomb attack there a day before had killed six Iraqis and wounded 59.

Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since the war began on March 20, though some of the deaths were accidental or natural. Two others have been missing since the first days of the war.

He is the second Reuters cameraman to be killed since the U.S.-led force invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.

On April 8, Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian based in Warsaw, died when a U.S. tank fired a shell at the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, the base for many foreign media in Baghdad.

Dana, 41, worked for Reuters mostly in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Married with four children, he was one of the company's most experienced conflict journalists and had worked in Baghdad before, shortly after U.S. troops entered the city.

He was awarded an International Press Freedom Award in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.

[SunStar]

I wonder if the guy who killed the Reuters reporter was a "terrorist" or just a "militant"...

[anniegetyourgun]

Just another Reuters 'freedom fighter', perhaps?

[Paul Atreides]

No matter, it's all Bush's fault anyway.

[solitas]

Oh, you can BET what they'll label HIM.
Hey Tom, Peter, (what's-his-name-on-CBS), etc.: show us the outrage.

[MissAmericanPie]

He was a freedom fighter, no doubt about it.

[Lexington Green]

Shot by anonymous sources - I'm saddened. Journalists have been SO helpful in our war effort.

[arasina]

Who shot him?

[Publius6961]

Another musli agent meets an unexpected demise?
Boo-fripping-hoo

[At _War_With_Liberals]

A true martyr...

To be revered by all Mooooslims...

[ikka]

Reuters reporter: if shot by a Baathist, then it is a clear case of "friendly fire".

[Gringo1]

I find it very hard to feel sorry for journalists killed in war zones.

1)They spend all year making hay about the deaths of others, sometimes with doubtful and often hateful-towards the U.S. bylines, then every year, they have a big boo-hoo fest about their dead comrades, and how horrible it is that journalists die reporting on wars.

2)It's a war zone you idiots! Guess what? there is danger there!

3)Journalists generally act like idiots in war zones, they cannot take good advice from the military such as "I wouldn't go there if I were you".....then bitch about not being protected by the military when they go there anyway and get shot. They also hate to be "tied" to the military, hence they go "unilateral" and get killed......then bitch about it.

4) I think they are still convinced that the bad guys will not kill them because they are journalists.......rose colored glasses are no match for an Islamic whacko with an AK-47.....and yet they never learn from the deaths of their 'comrades".

[Aaron0617]

Who shot him?

MSNBC says, U.S. soldiers did. This camera man was evacuated after the 'incident' but later died. Army is investigating it now.

[Aaron0617]

As he was shooting video he was shot.

[LurkedLongEnough]

He was awarded an International Press Freedom Award in 2001 by the Committee to Protect Journalists for his work in Hebron where he was wounded and beaten many times.

I couldn't get to the site (www.csj.org)... but according to another source, "the CPJ is a 'nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to monitor abuses against the press and promote press freedom around the world'."

Not disputing any of the previous comments about journalist egoism/foolishness here, but wouldn't this org be a champion of our 1st Amendment then?

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

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