Iraq: pretty much like a graveyard for journalists

      Some figures say more than a thousand words: of the 124 journalists and photographers killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion, 102 were Iraqis.

      The Iraqis are badly needed by the New York Times, the Washington Post...and the numerous other international media that report from Iraq. They rely heavily on local journalists for information and contacts but the Iraqis pay a high price for their collaboration.

      An equally alarming figure: U.S. military authorities have held more than eight Iraqi journalists at detention centers for from weeks to months on suspicion of alleged collaboration with insurgent groups, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

    One of the arrested journalists is Bilal Hussein, who won the Associated Press's 2005 Pulitzer Prize for photography. He was held for approximately 20 months at Abu Ghraib, according to the New York Times, and now his fate hinges on the decision of just one man, an Iraqi magistrate who will act as a one man jury to decide if there is evidence linking him to the insurgency.

    If the occupation of a journalist is to collect duly verified information so the reader can come to an intelligent conclusion concerning a social or political conflict, detention on mere suspicion is a clear violation not only of the journalist's obligation to inform but of the public's right to receive objective and reliable information.