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American journalist kidnapped, her Iraqi interpreter shot dead

by Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders said it was extremely worried by the reported abduction of an American journalist Jill Carroll on 7 January 2006 in Baghdad and appalled by the news that her interpreter Allan Enwiyah was shot dead by her abductors.

“Journalists working in Iraq have once again been caught in a deadly ambush,” the press freedom organisation said. “The interpreter’s death confirms that the Iraqi press continues to be the chief victim of the infernal climate for the media in this country. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends and to all Iraqi journalists, who are paying the highest price in the war ravaging their country.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “There is still a life that can be saved today. We appeal to all those who, like us, reject injustice to do everything possible to ensure that the kidnapped journalist is freed as soon as possible. Experience has shown that an energetic campaign is decisive in the first days of an abduction.”

Jill Carroll, a freelance writer currently on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was going to meet Sunni political leader Adnan al-Dulaimi when, according to the Iraqi police, she was kidnapped by gunmen in the district of Adel, in western Baghdad at about 10 a.m. last Saturday, January 6.

Her Iraqi driver escaped unharmed. Her interpreter’s body was found near the site of the abduction.

According to a statement posted on Monday, January 9, on the Christian Science Monitor website, Carroll’s relatives pleaded for her release, urging her captors to "consider the work she has done to reveal the truth about the Iraq war."

Carroll, who has been working in Iraq since October 2003 and has worked for the Italian news agency ANSA, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other US dailies, has been contributing articles regularly since last February to The Christian Science Monitor, according to world news editor David Clark Scott. "She has proved an insightful, resourceful, and courageous reporter," he said. "But Jill is not the kind of person to take undue risks."

Richard Bergenheim, editor of the Monitor, appealed to Carroll’s abductors to let her go immediately. "Jill’s ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable. We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," he said.

A total of 55 journalists and 21 media assistants have been killed since the start of war in Iraq in March 2003. Of the 76 fatal victims, 56 (73 per cent) were Iraqi and four (five per cent) were American. Baghdad continues to be Iraq’s most dangerous city, with 27 journalists and assistants killed, followed by Mosul, with 12. The pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Iraqiya has been the worst hit news medium with a total of 10 journalists and assistants killed.

Jill Carroll is the 31st media worker to have been kidnapped in Iraq since the start of the war. Five of the kidnap victims (four Iraqis and Enzo Baldoni of Italy) were killed by their abductors. The others were released safe and sound. Twenty-three of the abductions took place in or near Baghdad.