All Blog Posts from Public Eye

Um, yeah. That’s what Reporters Without Borders’ latest annual survey on press freedom throughout the world says, putting the U.S. on par with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. That’s a nine point drop from its spot last year and a 36 point drop from its original position (17th) in the survey’s first year.

Why the drop? RWB cites the contentious relationship between the media and the Bush administration, which “sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of ‘national security’ to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his ‘war on terrorism.’” That, and the “zeal of federal courts” for not passing a law that protects journalists from revealing their sources. The survey specifically mentions journalist/blogger Josh Wolf, jailed when he refused to provide footage of a political protest in California to a federal grand jury; Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, who has been held at Guantanamo since 2002 without charges and AP photographer Bilal Hussein; who has been held in Iraq for six months with no charges.

Who are the worst offenders? North Korea wins the grand prize. Following behind are Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Cuba, Burma and, as if we haven’t mentioned it enough on this Web site, China.

Read full post…

Here's an update on the case of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held in Iraq for six months without charges. Officials believe Hussein may be tied to insurgent groups, but Pentagon officials have refused to either charge or release him, despite calls from the AP for them to do so. The Pentagon recently reiterated its position in a letter to The Committee to Protect Journalists, arguing that the detention is legal according to U.N. resolutions and is in accord with the Geneva Conventions.

Now AP president and CEO Tom Curley is offering some harsh criticism of the military for its handling of the matter. "We are left to conclude that this is not an issue of a threat to American security," Curley wrote in an e-mail to Mediabisto. "It is an overt effort to stifle a free press."

As Mediabistro notes, AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll told "On The Media" that the AP "found absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing that would lead us to believe his relationships were anything other than those of a native son committing journalism."

Hussein's photos reveal that he has spent time in extremely close proximity to insurgents, fueling speculation about his ties to them. His case is remarkably similar to that of former CBS News cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, who was held at Abu Ghraib for a year before being released for lack of evidence.

Read full post…

Last month, the Associated Press called upon the Pentagon to either release or bring formal charges against Iraqi AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who’s been detained in Iraq since April. His case bears a striking similarity to that of CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, who was detained in Iraq for a year before he was acquitted based on a lack of evidence.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has also been seeking information from the Pentagon regarding Bilal Hussein’s detention. A spokesman responded in a letter to the organization yesterday, reiterating the military’s decision to hold Hussein. Writes the AP today:

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein continues to be held without charges at a U.S.-run prison camp. He instead repeated the military's longstanding assertion that it detained Hussein under authority of U.N. resolutions and in accord with the Geneva Conventions.

...The military has said he was in the company of two alleged insurgents, in an apartment where there were bomb-making materials, and that his detention was for "imperative reasons of security" under U.N. resolutions. His "strong ties" to insurgents go beyond the role of a journalist, the military has said.

The Pentagon’s response also said that Hussein has been “given an opportunity to provide information for consideration in at least two of three military reviews of his detention.” But AP lawyer Dave Tomlin said Hussein was notified of only one hearing – after it took place. "We regard all these so-called due process events as legally meaningless, and in fact consider it laughable that the term 'due process' would even be applied to them," Tomlin told the AP.

Read full post…

This Sunday, the Associated Press went public with a call on the Pentagon to either release or bring charges against AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been detained in Iraq for five months. Yesterday, the Pentagon defended its decision to detain Hussein, “asserting that it has authority to imprison him indefinitely without charges because it believes he had improper ties to insurgents,” wrote the AP yesterday. According to the AP on Sunday:

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.

Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.

"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure."

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide -- 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman told the AP on Monday that “Hussein's detainment indicates that he has strong ties with known insurgents and that he was doing things, involved in activities, that were well outside the scope of what you would expect a journalist to be doing."

But AP Associate General Counsel Dave Tomlin said Whitman didn’t address the fact that Bilal has not been provided a trial:

"Mr. Whitman says it would be `up to the central criminal court of Iraq' to charge Bilal with any wrongdoing. But the Iraqi court can't do that until the U.S. military hands over Bilal and whatever evidence they have against him to Iraqi authorities," Tomlin said.

"This is exactly what AP and Bilal are asking for," he said. "If the evidence isn't strong enough to support charges, however, Bilal should be released."

The whole situation brings to mind a similar battle between CBS and the Pentagon over the detention of Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, and it's well worth reading a full account of his story here.

Read full post…

Yesterday, we brought you the story of Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, the Iraqi CBS News cameraman who was imprisoned for a year on suspicion of insurgent activities before being released for lack of evidence. Now Michelle Malkin brings word of another Iraqi working for a Western news organization who may have been detained by the US military. The details are still sketchy, but Malkin received a tip that Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was captured in Ramadi, Iraq, "with a cache of weapons." In response to her inquiry, the AP's Jack Stokes wrote an email that "[w]e are looking into reports that Mr. Hussein was detained by the U.S. military in Iraq but have no further details at this time."

It's too early to draw any conclusions about Bilal Hussein, but his story, especially on the heals of the release of Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, illustrates of the challenges facing Western news organizations in reporting from Iraq, as well as those facing the US military in differentiating between journalists and enemy combatants. Since December, 2004, conservative bloggers have been raising questions about how some photojournalists were able to capture certain horrifying photos, since to do so they have to be in extremely dangerous situations. One photo they've focused on is an AP photo depicting terrorists executing Iraqi election workers in broad daylight, a shot credited to an unidentified stringer.

The AP's photos won a Pulitzer, and Bilal Hussein was a member of the winning team. Writes Malkin: "Hussein's photos have raised serious, persistent questions about his relationship with terrorists in Iraq and whether his photos were/are staged in collusion with the enemy." Some of Hussein's disturbing photographs can be found here, including a shot of insurgents standing over the body of Italian national Salvatore Santoro, guns drawn. Malkin has others, including close up shots of combat. "It's clear the photographer wasn't fearful at all for his own life," she writes.

Read full post…