Misodoctakleidist
26th August 2004, 18:58
Media organisations are preparing a formal protest to the Iraqi authorities after dozens of journalists in Najaf, including the entire BBC team, were forced from their hotel at gunpoint and detained by local police.
Around 60 journalists from local and foreign news organisations including the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Independent as well as the BBC, were held for almost an hour while police officers delivered what one correspondent described as an "unexpected press conference at gunpoint".
"A number of BBC staff were detained last night for approximately 40 minutes. We are considering a joint protest," said a BBC spokesman.
Correspondents in the Najaf Sea hotel said around a dozen policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists and forced them into vans and a truck.
The Independent's Donald Macintyre reported that the police, some masked, "shouted threats and abuse at the reporters, along with their Iraqi drivers and translators, and fired about a dozen shots inside and outside the hotel before taking them before the police chief, Major-General Ghaleb al-Jazaari, to hear his emotional complaints about media coverage and the sufferings of police officers during the present crisis".
And the Daily Telegraph said today that its correspondent, a translator and a driver had been forced into a bus and two lorries before being subjected to a "tirade against the press".
One witness told Reuters: "Journalists were just eating dinner and suddenly the police appeared in the lobby and started firing in the air."
Another said that police fired their guns in the air and that one "just missed a western cameraman". "The brick pieces from the wall came flying at us after the bullet hit," the witness added.
Hannah Allam, correspondent with the US newspaper group Knight Ridder, said she was in her room on the third floor of the hotel when she heard a loud boom that sounded like a mortar or rocket attack.
"When she peered over an indoor balcony, she saw at least four policemen running up the stairs with guns drawn. Other reporters were in the first-floor restaurant when the police rushed the building, brandishing pistols," wrote Allam.
Allam said one officer threatened to kill the reporters unless they co-operated as they as were dragged out of the their rooms at gunpoint.
"This reporter hastily grabbed a flak jacket, computer equipment, and a camera before a police officer barged into her room, pointed an assault rifle in her face, and ordered her out," she wrote.
Najaf police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari told the journalists they were being detained because the satellite television channel al-Arabiya had reported that Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani would arrive in Najaf today to lead a demonstration.
He said the news had triggered a march by people of Kufa to Najaf, which turned violent forcing police to fire as some "bad elements in the march fired at the police". Two people were killed and five wounded in the shooting.
Separately, the al-Jazeera website was today reporting that Iraqi police had arrested five members of al-Arabiya after they reported that US planes had fired missiles within metres of the Imam Ali mausoleum.
According to al-Jazeera, Iraqi security officials arrested the TV crew at their hotel in Najaf, taking five members into custody - including Iraq correspondent Diyar al-Omari.
Shia militants and US forces have been locked in fierce fighting in Najaf for the past three weeks, and last week, police threatened to kill journalists after they rejected a police order to leave town.
The Guardian (http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1291415,00.html)
Around 60 journalists from local and foreign news organisations including the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Independent as well as the BBC, were held for almost an hour while police officers delivered what one correspondent described as an "unexpected press conference at gunpoint".
"A number of BBC staff were detained last night for approximately 40 minutes. We are considering a joint protest," said a BBC spokesman.
Correspondents in the Najaf Sea hotel said around a dozen policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists and forced them into vans and a truck.
The Independent's Donald Macintyre reported that the police, some masked, "shouted threats and abuse at the reporters, along with their Iraqi drivers and translators, and fired about a dozen shots inside and outside the hotel before taking them before the police chief, Major-General Ghaleb al-Jazaari, to hear his emotional complaints about media coverage and the sufferings of police officers during the present crisis".
And the Daily Telegraph said today that its correspondent, a translator and a driver had been forced into a bus and two lorries before being subjected to a "tirade against the press".
One witness told Reuters: "Journalists were just eating dinner and suddenly the police appeared in the lobby and started firing in the air."
Another said that police fired their guns in the air and that one "just missed a western cameraman". "The brick pieces from the wall came flying at us after the bullet hit," the witness added.
Hannah Allam, correspondent with the US newspaper group Knight Ridder, said she was in her room on the third floor of the hotel when she heard a loud boom that sounded like a mortar or rocket attack.
"When she peered over an indoor balcony, she saw at least four policemen running up the stairs with guns drawn. Other reporters were in the first-floor restaurant when the police rushed the building, brandishing pistols," wrote Allam.
Allam said one officer threatened to kill the reporters unless they co-operated as they as were dragged out of the their rooms at gunpoint.
"This reporter hastily grabbed a flak jacket, computer equipment, and a camera before a police officer barged into her room, pointed an assault rifle in her face, and ordered her out," she wrote.
Najaf police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari told the journalists they were being detained because the satellite television channel al-Arabiya had reported that Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani would arrive in Najaf today to lead a demonstration.
He said the news had triggered a march by people of Kufa to Najaf, which turned violent forcing police to fire as some "bad elements in the march fired at the police". Two people were killed and five wounded in the shooting.
Separately, the al-Jazeera website was today reporting that Iraqi police had arrested five members of al-Arabiya after they reported that US planes had fired missiles within metres of the Imam Ali mausoleum.
According to al-Jazeera, Iraqi security officials arrested the TV crew at their hotel in Najaf, taking five members into custody - including Iraq correspondent Diyar al-Omari.
Shia militants and US forces have been locked in fierce fighting in Najaf for the past three weeks, and last week, police threatened to kill journalists after they rejected a police order to leave town.
The Guardian (http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1291415,00.html)