• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

Star TV host badly wounded in Baghdad shooting attack

Imad Abadi, the star anchor of the independent satellite TV news station Al-Diyar, was badly injured in a clearly targeted shooting attack last night in Baghdad, just weeks after Reporters Without Borders had highlighted a decline in the level of violence against journalists in its latest press freedom index (see release).

"We condemn this murder attempt with the utmost firmness and we urge the Iraqi authorities to do everything possible to identify both the perpetrators and masterminds, and bring them to justice," Reporters Without Borders said. "This loathsome act, which must not go unpunished, is a sad reminder that Iraqi journalists risk their lives every day just to do their job."

Abadi was shot twice by unidentified gunmen as he was driving through the central Baghdad neighbourhood of Salihiya. "He sustained a gunshot wound to the head and another to the neck," Al-Diyar owner Faysal Al-Yasqiri told Agence France-Presse, adding that his condition was now stable. He was taken to Yarmouk Hospital.

Aged 36 and the father of four children, Abadi has presented a weekly programme called "Afkar bila Aswa" on Al-Diyar since the station's launch, hosting discussions about Iraqi current affairs and politics. He is regarded as a defender of press freedom.

Although headquartered in Oman, Al-Diyar has had studios in Baghdad since April 2004 and was the only station to carry daily broadcasts of Saddam Hussein's trial in 2006

Iraq was ranked 145th out of 175 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

View Abadi's appearance on Al-Baghdadiya TV on 16 November in which he analysed (in Arabic) the press freedom situation in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's overthrow. http://www.albaghdadia.com/video.html?task=videodirectlink&id=330

Topics: Freedom of speech, Freedom of information, Freedom of expression,