06/17/08

Officials: Iraqi state TV reporter shot to death in northern city of Mosul

By BUSHRA JUHI
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- An Iraqi state TV anchor who broadcast programs about herbal medicine was shot to death Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul, officials and colleagues said.

Muhieddin Abdul-Hamid, a 50-year-old Iraqiya reporter, was killed by gunmen who emerged from a car near his home in an upscale Sunni neighborhood in eastern Mosul, police and a colleague said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

Abdul-Hamid -- along with many other Iraqiya employees -- found a note on his doorstep more than a year ago warning him to quit his job or face death, but he ignored the threat, the colleague said. The slain journalist is survived by his wife.

The state-run Iraqiya called Abdul-Hamid a martyr and condemned the attack, saying it was a "cowardly criminal act targeting freedom of speech."

The Iraqi Journalists' Union, meanwhile, urged the military in Ninevah province, of which Mosul is the capital, to step up efforts to end assassination attempts against journalists.

Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is the center of a major U.S.-Iraqi military operation aimed at clearing the area of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents.

Journalists have frequently been targeted by attacks or caught up in the violence in Iraq.

Excluding Abdul-Hamid's death, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Ninevah province had the second-largest number of journalist deaths recorded by CPJ, with 19, after Baghdad province, which had 74.