Tony Gosling
bristol@nuj.org.uk
Mon, 31 Mar 2003 14:29:54 +0100
--=======2923208D======= Content-Type: text/plain; x-avg-checked=avg-ok-7FF65F35; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Gaby Rado suicide? http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=392434 ITN reporter dies after mystery fall from hotel roof By Arifa Akbar 31 March 2003 A second ITN reporter died in Iraq yesterday after apparently falling from a hotel roof in a Kurdish-controlled area on the eleventh day of the conflict. Gabby Rado, 48, the foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News, was found dead in the hotel's car park in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. Mr Rado, who had two children and was an award- winning war correspondent, is thought to have fallen from the roof of the Abu Sanaa at around 8.30am local time. Witnesses reported seeing him walking up to the hotel roof alone, according to local police, but little is known of what then happened. Despite receiving first aid on the scene, Mr Rado was pronounced dead at the local hospital. An inquiry into the circumstances of his death has been opened by police in Sulaymaniyah. During his 15-year career with Channel 4, Mr Rado, who was born in Hungary, had covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, winning three Amnesty International awards. His family, including his current wife, Desa, and his two children by his first wife, have been told of his death. Terry Lloyd, a senior ITN correspondent, died when his vehicle was attacked, probably by US forces, in southern Iraq near Basra last Saturday. Two other ITN journalists, Fred Nerac, a cameraman, and Hussein Osman, a driver and translator, who were part of Mr Lloyd's news team, are still missing. Mr Rado had been reporting on the activities of the Kurdish fighters and coalition troops who had advanced to Kirkuk, 50 miles from Sulaymaniyah, where no fighting had been reported. An ITN spokeswoman said: "It is very sad news indeed but his death was unrelated to the conflict. It is not a Terry Lloyd situation." ITN executives expressed their sense of shock and sadness. Stewart Purvis, ITN editor-in-chief, commended Mr Rado's journalistic skills and said his death was a tragedy for his friends, family and colleagues across ITN. "We will make every effort to bring his body home while we also continue to recover from Basra the body of Terry Lloyd and search for the missing ITV news crew members." Journalist found dead in Iraq http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,926172,00.html Matt Wells, and Luke Harding in Sulaimaniya, northern Iraq Monday March 31, 2003 The Guardian Gaby Rado, an award-winning foreign affairs correspondent with Channel 4 News, has been found dead outside a hotel in northern Iraq. His body was discovered in the car park of the Abu Sanaa hotel in Sulaimaniya, in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, by another journalist yesterday. It is thought he fell from the roof. Unlike fellow ITN journalist Terry Lloyd, who was killed last week apparently by coalition gunfire, it is not thought that Rado's death was the result of military action. Jim Gray, editor of Channel 4 News, said Rado's colleagues were "utterly distraught" at his death: "Gaby was a truly unique figure in television journalism, and his reporting and analysis of some of the world's most tumultuous events was always imbued with his uniquely cultured sensibility and perception. We loved Gaby very much and he will be deeply missed." Jon Snow, presenter of Channel 4 News, says in an obituary for Rado in the Guardian today: "From Bosnia to Afghanistan, from Bucharest to Jericho, he brought a dependable, engaged and humane quality to his reports that eschewed the flash or the immodest." ITN said in a statement: "It is believed that Gaby fell from the roof of the Abu Sanaa hotel into the car park below, where his body was found. A witness had seen him walking up to the hotel roof alone." Rado arrived in northern Iraq about six weeks ago. Staff at the Abu Sanaa hotel, where he had checked in the previous night, said he had gone up to the roof on his own after asking a member of staff to show him the way. His death comes a week after his ITN colleague Terry Lloyd was killed in what is thought to have been a "friendly fire" attack in Iraq. Rado leaves a wife, Desa, whom he met on assignment in Serbia, and two children by his first wife, Carol. Bristol branch - National Union of Journalists 10-12 Picton Street Montpelier BRISTOL BS6 5QA England http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/nuj_bristol/ http://www.gn.apc.org/media/nuj.html http://www.nuj.org.uk 0117 944 6219 --=======2923208D=======--