Young woman TV presenter is Mosul’s latest media victim

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by TV presenter Nawras al Nouaymi’s murder yesterday in Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh. Unidentified gunmen shot her near her home in the city’s eastern district of Al-Jazair. Aged 19, she was a student at Mosul university’s media faculty and had worked as a presenter for satellite TV station Al-Mosuliya for the past five years. “We are stunned by this latest murder and by the failure of the local and national authorities to respond to the deadly campaign against journalists in Iraq,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The continuing violence and the impunity enjoyed by those responsible constitute a major threat to freedom of information. “We again urge the authorities to deploy all necessary resources for independent investigations which do not rule out the possibility of a link between these murders and the victims’ work as a journalists, and which result in the perpetrators and instigators being brought to justice. “Although the security forces have been aware for weeks of the existence of a list of 44 journalists in Nineveh province who are targets for ‘physical liquidation,’ no measure has been taken to protect these journalists. We call on the local and national authorities to address this omission at once.” The most recent previous victim was Alaa Edwar, a cameraman with local TV station Nineveh Al-Ghad, who was gunned down hear his home in the northern suburb of Al-Majmoaa Al-Thakafiya on 24 November. Al-Mosuliya cameraman Bashar Abdulqader Najm Al-Nouaymi was shot by unidentified gunmen outside his home on the afternoon of 24 October. And gunmen shot Al-Sharqiya TV reporter Mohamed Karim Al-Badrani and his cameraman, Mohamed Al-Ghanem, in the head while they were doing a report on the preparations for Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) in Al-Sarjakhaneh market, in the centre of Mosul, on 5 October.