A long writeup on some of the recent events in Warblogging.com, including a questioning of how US forces have been conducting themselves, not just with regards to journalists, but with civilians and allies (err, ally.. the British).
US Army Colonel David Perkins of the 3rd Infantry Division said that Iraqis in front of
the hotel fired rocket propelled grenades across the Tigris River at
main battle tanks quite a way away (reporters say that the tanks were
“more than a half-mile away”). Colonel Perkins said that soldiers
fired a 120mm ruond at the hotel after seeing enemy “binoculars” in the
hotel. The shell hit the 15th floor of the building, killing two journalists and injuring five.
According to reporters there were dozens upon dozens of cameras
arrayed on the balconies of the hotel. “How can they spot someone with
binoculars and not [see] cameras?” asked AP photographer Jerome Delay
who was in the hotel.
Journalists, according to the AP insist that they “heard no
gunfire coming from the hotel or its immediate environs.” They say
that they were watching two US tanks operating across the al-Jumhuriya
bridge — more than a half-mile away — and that at some point one of the
tanks simply rotated its turret towards the hotel and fired.
One of the journalists killed was a Reuters camerman. Reuters responded:
“Clearly the war, and all its confusion, has
come to the heart of Baghdad,” said Reuters Editor in Chief Geert
Linnebank. “But the incident nonetheless raises questions about the
judgment of the advancing U.S. troops who have known all along that
this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in
Baghdad.”
In Belgium, the International Federation of Journalists said it
appeared noted that on the same day US bombs hit al-Jazeera offices,
Abu Dhabi TV offices and the Palestine Hotel. They said it “appeared
Tuesday’s attacks may have deliberately targeted journalists,” says the AP. Secretary-General Aidan White of the IFJ said “If so, they are grave and serious violations of international law.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists went even further than the IFJ,
saying “We believe these attacks violate the Geenva Conventions. The
evidence suggests that the response of US forces was disproportionate
and therefore violated international humanitarian law,” Reuters reports.
The Arab Journalists Union also “condemned the Anglo-American attack on journalists while in Baghdad to cover the aggression.”
The Pentagon has responded simply by saying that Baghdad is “not a safe place” and that journalists “should not be there.”