153 Journalists Killed in Iraq in 4 Years

France based press freedom organization Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) staged a protest in Paris on the brink of the 4th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Carrying photographs of the 153 journalists and media assistants killed during the invasion up to date, "What if it were France?" asked the activists.

According to RSF's Iraq correspondent, when a journalist fails to show up for work, his friends and colleagues immediately check the morgue.

The victims include journalists from all sorts of news media but most of them are Iraqi public media employees, who are seen as working for a government identified with the United States.

Others are targeted for working for news media linked with a particular religious group or political party.

Abductions of journalists are on the increase according to the organization. A total of 64 media workers have been kidnapped since March 2003. 17 of them were executed by their captors. There is no word on the fate of 11 others.

In the 11 and a half months since Iraqi reporter Reem Zeid and her colleague Marwan Khazaal of Sumariya TV, a local station, were kidnapped on 1 February 2006, her abductors have never contacted her family or employer.

"Four years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the toll of media deaths continues to mount. Iraq has become the world's most dangerous country for the press", RSF said. (EÜ)