Hi all,
1. The union's four day Annual Delegate Meeting begins this Thursday 25th March in Liverpool - your delegates are branch officers: Helen Reed, Tony Gosling, Simon Chapman and Presswise's Mike Jempson www.presswise.org.uk.
We also have a guest observer at the conference, exiled Zimbabwean journalist Forward Maisokwadzu.
If there are specific issues you want us to raise, or questions you want answered, please get in touch by phone as I will be away from email.
Tony Gosling 07786 952037
2. Terry Lloyd: Special programme on ITV at 8pm this evening
http://www.itv.com/listings/ShowListings.aspx?itvregion=southwest&itvpackage=at&itvgenre=0
20:00 Tonight with Trevor McDonald
Current affairs series. This edition investigates the events surrounding the death of the ITN reporter Terry Lloyd in Iraq a year ago. Reporter Michael Nicholson and cameraman Daniel Demoustier - the only survivor of the incident - return to Iraq to try to piece together the events leading to this tragedy on the road to Basra.
MISSING ITV DUO KILLED BY US ARMY
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14076251%26method=full%26siteid=50143%26headline=missing-itv-duo-killed-by-us-army-name_page.html
Mar 22 2004
EXCLUSIVE
By Tom Newton Dunn
TWO missing ITV journalists were killed by US troops on the second day of the Iraqi war, witnesses claim.
ITN cameraman Fred Nerac and translator Hussein Osman are believed to have been blasted by tanks or helicopter gunships as Iraqis tried to take them to safety in a pick-up.
The attack was so intense it is likely Belgian Nerac, 43, and Lebanese-born Osman, 31, were blown to bits. ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, 51, died in the same incident. US Marines were later told they may have cut down "friendlies". But they made NO attempt to look for survivors.
ITN, which conducted its own probe into the tragedy, took the testimony of three people in the pick-up.
Investigator Nick Walshe said: "They told broadly the same story that Fred and Hussein were put in the vehicle which was then shot to pieces by the Americans."
An Army source added: "It's our firm belief that Fred and Hussein were hit as Iraqis tried to get them out."
Nerac, Osman, Lloyd and French cameraman Daniel Demoustier were in two media 4x4s caught in the crossfire of marines and the Iraqi army on March 22 last year.
For months it was thought Nerac and Osman were executed by fedayeens.
Startling new evidence of their fate will be revealed on ITV tonight. An ITN spokeswoman said: "New witnesses have come forward to support our theory." A Royal Military Police probe is continuing.
__________________
FACED with a shot-up 4x4 blasted by US troops reporter Ron Harris knew he was staring at a bloody bungle.
The initials "TV" were clearly marked on the vehicle. Turning to the tank crews he was travelling with, Ron yelled in panic "That's media in there!"
But troopers barred him and photographer Andy Cutraro from investigating though the vehicle was only 200 yards away.
And not a single soldier moved to the scene - even from the protection of an Abrams tank.
Ron said: "It felt like protect the Marine Corps at all cost. But it was in the best interest of the corps to find out what happened. Nobody here can tell us anything, we understand bodies may still be in the vehicle, let's go see."
Andy, who looked at the wreck through a telephoto lens, said: "There was no question it was a TV crew. I said 'I think a TV crew was shot up. We gotta see what happened...can we get closer?' Somebody could have been injured and bled to death because no one wanted to make the move.
"I'm no expert but it seemed not a huge deal to move the tanks up to inspect the car, especially after you realised there were friendlies in there and journalists at that."
Unknown to the newsmen or marines it was too late. Three men already lay dead from US fire, say witnesses.
They included ITN cameraman Fred Nerac, 43, and translator Hussein Osman, 31, whose bodies have never been found.
When Americans Harris and Cutraro, who were "embedded" with the marines, arrived at the scene about an hour later there was nothing they or the US Army could do to save the men.
By dawn all trace of Nerac and Osman's car had disappeared. But the soldiers' apparent refusal to investigate when they did not know if the TV men were dead or alive will stoke anger over one of the most controversial incidents of the Iraqi war.
Belgian Nerac, Lebanese-born Osman, British reporter Terry Lloyd, 51, and French cameraman Daniel Demoustier were caught in US- Iraqi crossfire outside Basra exactly one year ago. Demoustier escaped by hiding in a ditch. Lloyd died from a US bullet fired while he was in the back of a makeshift Iraqi ambulance being driven to hospital away from the US positions.
For months Osman and Nerac were thought to have been handed over to fanatical fedayeen paramilitaries in nearby Az Zubayr because their looted vehicle and press passes were found there.
Now dramatic new evidence supplied by five Iraqi soldiers and civilians claims the two men died from heavy US fire as they were driven away from the battle on the back of an Iraqi pick-up truck.
The fleeing vehicle was hit almost immediately by heavy calibre rounds, believed to have been fired from Abrams tanks or Cobra and Apache helicopter gunships.
Witnesses say the attack was so intense the men were likely to have been blasted to bits.
Their remains are now probably buried in unmarked mass graves along with dozens of Iraqi soldiers.
The witnesses came forward after a fresh appeal by Royal Military Police investigating the tragedy.
An army source said: "Our firm belief now is that Fred and Hussein never survived the initial fire fight. From all we gather, they were hit as the Iraqis tried to get them out."
ITN carried out its own painstaking investigation which came to the same conclusion.
Its investigators, including two former SAS men, tracked down three Iraqis who were in the pick-up truck with Nerac and Osman.
ITN journalist Nick Walshe, who led the internal probe, said: "There were inconsistencies. But the three people told broadly the same story, that Fred and Hussein had been put in a pick-up that was then shot to pieces by the Americans.
"What happened to any bodies we still don't know a year on."
The results of the ITN probe will be broadcast on ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald at 8pm tonight.
Meanwhile the Mirror has learned the Army probe, ordered last summer by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, is set to wrap up in weeks without reaching a final conclusion
Investigators have been repeatedly refused permission by the US military to interview the marines involved in the incident.
Nerac's widow, mother of two Fabienne who lives in Brussels, has accused the Pentagon of obstruction.
She said: "The marines have not been interviewed. It seems the British military are not allowed to.
"Any answer from the US side could be quite important.
"It's painful because 'missing' means both things, either Fred and Hussein are alive or they are dead.
"I don't know after how many years I'll stop thinking of what happened to Fred. It could be always."
ITN Editor David Mannion said: "This is a terrible thing for the families of Fred and Hussein to suffer. For there to be no body to bury or cremate prevents closure".
The Army refused to comment. The Pentagon last night could not comment on the new allegations.
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U.S. says shooting of cameraman was justified
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/24by7panews/tm_objectid=14078206%26method=full%26siteid=50143%26headline=u-s--says-shooting-of-cameraman-was-justified-name_page.html
13:49, Mar 22 2004
LONDON (Reuters) - An American soldier who killed Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana in Iraq was justified in opening fire, a U.S. army report says.
The report, made public on Monday seven months after Dana died, found that the soldier's "decision to fire at Mr Dana, though tragic and regrettable, was justified based on the information available to him at the time."
Reuters said it could not agree that the death of Dana, a prize- winning Palestinian cameraman, was justified and called for the urgent implementation of recommendations in the report to improve the safety of journalists in war zones.
It said Dana would not have died in the shooting outside Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison on August 17 if the recommendations had been in place.
The Army report said the soldier, who shot from a tank, had a "reasonable certainty" that Dana was about to fire a rocket- propelled grenade (RPG), having mistaken his camera for a launcher. But it said the tank commander recognised Dana was holding a camera immediately after the fatal shots were fired.
The report concluded that lack of procedures for communicating the presence of journalists among U.S. troops contributed to the tragedy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It made a series of recommendations, including better communication and coordination between U.S. units and wider dissemination of knowledge about the presence of journalists and other civilians in war zones.
Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger welcomed the thoroughness of the report but said: "In recent months the safety of journalists in Iraq has deteriorated significantly. To avoid further needless loss of life it is imperative that these recommendations be implemented immediately throughout all areas of conflict."
Journalists working in Iraq say most of the recommendations do not appear to have been enforced although the report was completed several months ago.
Dana was the second Reuters cameraman killed in Iraq.
The first, Ukrainian Taras Protsyuk, died last April when a U.S. tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad in the closing hours of the war to oust Saddam Hussein. Jose Couso, of Spain's Telecinco television, was also killed.
Schlesinger said in a statement both Dana and Protsyuk's deaths could have been avoided.
"We believe that the Reuters staff killed in Iraq...would both still be alive if the recommendation regarding improved communications between U.S. units in the field and the military's high command had been implemented before their deaths."
Dana had made his presence known to U.S. troops at the prison and the Palestine was widely known to be a media hotel. But this information was not passed the units that fired.
Dana's widow Suzan said in the Palestinian city of Ramallah: "I am not satisfied with the investigation at all. They said that Mazen did not do anything wrong, but at the same time they did not criticise the soldier who killed him. They are only trying to justify their actions."
Schlesinger said in his statement: "The Pentagon must now accept that independent journalists will always operate in the field outside the embedding process and there need to be sensible and prudent measures to avoid them being killed."
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Schlesinger endorsed another recommendation in the report, for a review of the rules of engagement used by U.S. troops to reduce the risk of injury to non-combatants. The rules have never been made public by the Pentagon.
Other report recommendations welcomed by Reuters were weekly security briefings for media organisations and improved systematic communication between media and the military.
The Pentagon report said "sudden movements" by Dana and the glare of the sun contributed to the soldier's decision to shoot him and the failure to identify a camera instead of an RPG.
Reuters says the evidence does not support these conclusions.
Two Iraqi journalists working for Dubai's Al Arabiya television died last week after being shot by U.S. troops in central Baghdad. That brought the number of media staff killed since the start of the war in Iraq to 36, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Schlesinger's statement concluded: "The bottom line is that the military and media organisations must work together to improve journalist safety and ensure that it is approached on a programmatic, operational level that is relevant to all conflicts, not just the current one in Iraq."
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