Iraq: No More Photos Of Bombings

May 16, 2007
By Daryl Lang (PDN)

In another impediment to the news coverage of the Iraq war, an Iraqi government official says photographers and videographers will be banned from the scenes of bombings.

Iraqi police enforced the new rule Tuesday, firing shots into the air to disperse journalists who gathered after a bomb went off in Baghdad's Tayaran Square, according to the Associated Press.

If enforced, the rule will have the greatest impact on Iraqi journalists. In the most dangerous parts of the country, international journalists are usually embedded with U.S. military units for security reasons. Wire services and other major news agencies employ local staff to gather news in the field.

The ban was announced Sunday, according to wire service reports that quoted Brig. Gen. Abdel Karim Khalaf, operations director of Iraq's Interior Ministry.

"We do not want evidence to be disturbed before the arrival of detectives, the ministry must respect human rights and does not want to expose victims and does not want to give terrorists information that they achieved their goals," Khalaf told Agence France Presse. "This decision does not imply a curtailment of press freedom, it is a measure followed all over the world."

Press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders criticized the new rule. "It is vital that journalists can report on the security situation throughout the country without it being seen as incitement to violence. When the streets become impassable and the authorities provide no information about the attacks in real time, the role of the reporter becomes essential. Coverage of these attacks allows people to evaluate the security risk and to avoid dangerous areas," says a statement from the organization.

While the photo ban is a new development, authorities in Iraq have been suspicious about photojournalists at bomb scenes, claiming that the journalists may have advance knowledge of insurgent attacks.

After Reuters photojournalist Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani was arrested by the U.S. military in 2005, a military spokesperson said journalists who frequently appear at bombing scenes are sometimes detained for questioning. Mashhadani was held for five months and released.

Similarly, the military cited bombing photographs by AP photojournalist Bilal Hussein as one of the reasons he is being detained as a security threat. He has now been held for 13 months.