dangerous violations in history, including murder, kidnapping, and tor- ture. Abu Ghraib prison became one of the most notorious symbols of those violations that continued throughout the ten years of U.S. occu- pation. During that period, an Iraqi report documented the killing of 147 journalists, both Iraqis and foreigners, 18 of whom were killed by the U.S. army (1) . In a report entitled “The War in Iraq”, Reporters with- out Borders considered the conflict “the most heinous massacre in the history of the press between 2003 and 2010”. The report stated that the war is one of the bloodiest conflicts for journalists since World War II (2) . The following are a few examples of what Al Jazeera faced during the war in Iraq: - On April 8, 2003, U.S. forces bombed the Network’s bureau in Bagh- dad, killing its correspondent Tariq Ayoub. His cameraman Zuhair Nazim, who was on the roof of the building with Tariq Ayoub, was wounded in the bombing. - In the first year of the U.S. occupation, 21 employees were arrested and then released without charges. In September 2003, the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, set up by the occupation authorities, ordered the closure of Al Jazeera’s bureau in Baghdad and banned its activities for two weeks. In the same month, the American forces detained the entire crew, including journalist Atwar Bahjat (3) . - Al Jazeera’s journalists also had an encounter with the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. On November 3, 2003, photojournalist Salah Hassan Al-Ajili, was arrested while he was filming the site where a roadside bomb had exploded targeting an American military con- voy in the Diyala area. The U.S. forces accused him of having prior knowledge of the attack and that he was aware of the incidents be- fore it took place. A few days later, Al-Ajili was transferred to Abu Ghraib prison. He was brutally tortured along with his colleague
(1) A press release by the Iraqi Monitor of Press Freedom , issued on the occasion of the Iraq Press Day; https://bit.ly/2kq5Njb/ (accessed 30/03/2020).
(2) Iraq War: the Bloodiest for journalists, Aljazeera.net: https://bit.ly/3lTvd6X/ (accessed 22/11/2020).
(3) Atwar Bahjat, was among the leading Iraqi journalists. She resigned from Al Jazeera in February 2006, and three weeks after her resignation, she was killed by an armed group.
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