Third World Media Journal, A Quarterly Publication of TWMN

MEDIA NEWS

  Iraqi Militants Release Abducted British Journalist
  Nepalese Journalists Leave Home Amid Maoist Threat
  British Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq
  Niger Journalist Held for Interviewing Suspected Rebel
  Another Filipino Journalist Killed in Laguna
  Iran Summons Iraqi Envoy Over Journalist Arrests

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Iraqi Militants Release Abducted British Journalist

BAGHDAD, Aug 13 - British journalist James Brandon, held hostage by Iraqi militants, has been released from captivity.
The 23-year-old Sunday Telegraph reporter was abducted from his hotel in the southern city of Basra and spent a traumatic 24 hours living with the threat of execution.
The Londoner was paraded on television screens worldwide, ashen-faced and bare chested, wearing a large white bandage around his head.
Insurgents insisted they would kill Brandon unless American troops pull out of the holy city of Najaf.
But intervention by the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has been credited with securing his release. Journal Desk

Nepalese Journalists Leave Home Amid Maoist Threat

KATHMANDU, Aug 13 - Two journalists in Nepal's Dailekh district have left their home after they received threats from the Maoists that their hands would be chopped off, Kantipur daily reported Friday.
Bhupendra Shahi of Gorkhapatra daily and Kamal Neupane of local Susheli daily had to face the Maoist wrath after they wrote a news article about the Maoist extortion of local businessmen.
Furious over their writings, the Maoists threatened to chop off their hands and send them to its labor camp.
Meanwhile, the Maoists have compelled Pashupati Neupane, the father of journalist Neupane, to pay them Rs 80,000 as donation. In view of increased threat, the two have left their home. Journal Report

British Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Aug 13 - Iraqi militants kidnapped a British journalist in the southern city of Basra and threatened to kill him unless US forces pull out from the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf in 24 hours, witnesses and a video tape showed today.
The witnesses said gunmen seized the journalist from a hotel in mainly Shi'ite Basra overnight. Hours later a video tape released in the city showed a hooded militant standing next to the journalist and threatening to kill him if the attack on Najaf was not stopped.
"We demand the American forces withdraw from Najaf within 24 hours or we will kill this British hostage," the militant is heard saying.
"I'm a journalist, I just write about what is happening in Iraq ...(I'm) James Brandon from the Sunday Telegraph," a visibly shaken and barechested hostage said.
A hotel employee at the front desk said the journalist was registered as "James Andrew working for the Sunday Telegraph".
About 20 masked gunmen, some wearing police uniform, stormed into the Al-Diyafa hotel at about 11pm Friday and demanded the receptionist showed them the guest book, said a hotel employee, who wished to remain anonymous.
"One of them then said 'how dare you have foreigners in your hotel' and then they stormed upstairs," said the employee.
"We then heard two shots and minutes later they were dragging the British journalist down and he was bleeding."
A British military spokesman in Basra would not confirm the kidnapping saying "we are working with the local authorities to establish the facts".
The incident comes one day after a shadowy Shi'ite group calling itself Abu al-Abbas warned that it would kill all those cooperating with British troops in apparent retaliation for the US-led assault on Najaf to the north.
It was not immediately clear if the group had any links to the Mehdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Two British soldiers were killed in Basra over the past week in clashes with Sadr's militia, who have threatened to attack the area's vital oil infrastructure if the fighting was not stopped in Najaf.
Militants in Iraq have waged a campaign of kidnapping aimed at driving out individuals, companies and troops supporting US forces and the new Iraqi interim administration.
Scores of hostages have been kidnapped by armed groups. Some have been freed but nine have been killed. Journal Desk

Niger Journalist Held for Interviewing Suspected Rebel

NIAMEY, Aug 12 - The head of a Niger radio station who is also the correspondent for Radio France Internationale was detained on Thursday after interviewing a suspected rebel claiming responsibility for an attack, police sources said.
Gunmen attacked several buses on a road in northern Niger on Tuesday, killing three passengers and kidnapping two paramilitary policemen, or gendarmes. It is the latest in a spate of attacks in the remote northern desert regions.
Radio France Internationale confirmed its correspondent Moussa Kaka had been detained.
The police said Kaka had been taken in for questioning after his radio Saraounia broadcast a telephone interview with the man, who was presented as a member of the revived Tuareg rebel group the Liberation Front of Air and Azawad.
The movement (FLAA) was disbanded after a peace deal between the government and the turban-clad Tuareg of the north, who were fighting for autonomy from central government.
But a group of Tuareg said in June they had recreated the FLAA, pledging loyalty to a former rebel leader who was sacked as tourism minister earlier this year and arrested for aiding and abetting murder. The government has repeatedly denied that there is a new rebellion and has blamed a spate of attacks on armed bandits.
A dozen former Tuareg rebels, who had been integrated in the security forces as part of a 1995 peace agreement, deserted their posts in the northern town of Agadez in May. Journal Desk

Another Filipino Journalist Killed in Laguna

MANILA, Aug 12 - Another Filipino journalist was shot dead Thursday, less than two weeks after three journalists were killed, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in an SMS alert.
Fernando Consignado, Radio Veritas reporter in Nagcarlan, Laguna, was reported shot dead early Thursday. He is the fourth journalist killed in less than two weeks, NUJP said.
Details of the killing were not available immediately.
President Arroyo on Thursday ordered Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes to lead efforts in bringing to justice the killers of journalists.
"If he can do it with kidnappers, he can certainly do something about these killings," Arroyo said. Journal Desk

Iran Summons Iraqi Envoy Over Journalist Arrests

TEHRAN, Aug 12 - Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Iraq's top envoy in Tehran to lodge a strong protest about the arrest this week of four journalists working for Iran's official news agency IRNA, the agency reported on Thursday.
The arrests on Monday by Iraqi police in Baghdad exacerbated tensions between the two neighbours who fought a bitter war in which hundreds of thousands died between 1980 and 1988.
Tehran has been angered by comments from some Iraqi officials that it is stirring up violence among the Shi'ite Muslim population in Iraq.
Iran says four Iranian businessmen working to improve trade ties with Iraq have also been arrested in the past month by U.S. troops who handed them over to Iraqi police.
An Iranian diplomat was kidnapped last week by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.
IRNA said a Foreign Ministry official told Iraq's Charge d'Affaires to Iran Khalil Salman al-Sabihi on Wednesday that the journalists' arrests were "illegal and unacceptable".
He asked for "a prompt investigation by Iraqi officials, the immediate release of the detainees, and clarification of the situation of the missing diplomat in Iraq," IRNA said.
A separate IRNA report, citing Iran's Charge d'Affaires in Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said IRNA's Baghdad Bureau Chief Mostafa Darban and three local staff were being held at Iraq's Interior Ministry.
US troops last year arrested two Iranian state television reporters in Iraq and held them for four months. Journal Desk

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