More Journalism Orgs Write Rumsfeld, Protest Detention of AP Photog

By: E&P Staff In a letter sent to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday, the chairman of The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Paul Steiger, called for the U.S. military to release or press charges against Iraqi freelance photographer Bilal Hussein. The letter follows a similar one sent to Rumsfeld last week from APME, ASNE, and the Associated Press Photo Managers.

Hussein has been held in U.S. custody for seven months in Iraq where he was working for the Associated Press.

In his letter, Steiger wrote: "Irrespective of the motivation for his detention, detaining a journalist for seven months without allowing minimum due process represents an unacceptable infringement on the ability of the press to carry out its work and is openly at odds with the message of democracy and respect for the rule of law that U.S. officials have publicly espoused in Iraq."

Steiger went on to cite eight other cases documented by the CPJ in which the U.S. military detained journalists for weeks or months without charging them with a crime.

In a letter to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Dorrance Smith on September 28, Steiger requested information about Hussein?s detention and the military?s plans for releasing or charging Hussein. In Monday?s letter, Steiger said he was provided information on the logistics of Hussein?s arrest, but still had received no indication as to the military?s intentions.

Also today, the Internal Federation of Journalists (IFJ) again called on U.S. authorities in Iraq to either produce evidence against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and put him on trial -- or release him from his six-month detention. IFJ said it supported similar calls from the AP and from its U.S. affiliate The Newspaper Guild/CWA.

"Bilal Hussein is stuck in limbo even though U.S. authorities have failed to provide evidence that he is guilty of anything except doing his job," Paris-based IFJ said. "Iraqi journalists face extreme pressures as they try to provide an accurate picture of events there. The government and military forces should focus on protecting their safety and legal rights, not detaining them indefinitely."

The IFJ said it has had no response to its letter sent to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld urging him to either transfer the case to the Iraqi courts or to let Hussein go.