Another female journalist slain

Media killings continue and know no barriers. Some time back I mentioned the case of media people being subject to violent treatment in Romania and Russia. There’s also the case of missing journalist in Gaza. Not later than yesterday I raised concern about killings in Afghanistan of female journalists fighting for women’s rights.

This time it’s in Iraq, where more than 180 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the beginning of the war in March 2003. In the only month of May 12 journalists have been killed there.

But what is more appalling is the case of another female journalist who was showered with bullets by gunmen in front of her house near Mosul on Thursday June 7. Mother of three girls, aged 45, Sahar al-Haidari has been working for an independent Iraqi news agency in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad.

Although women journalists, reporters and presenters constitute a minority in such countries, they are on the increase. And it seems male dominated families exert extreme pressure on them with the result that intimidation and threats of violence are also growing.

The brutal treatment and killing of respected and brave journalists as those in the conflict zones are issues of concern not only to the media organizations and their members, but also, and mostly, to the families and close relatives of the victims.

Leave a Reply